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Taekwondo instructor Jason Lee says Rotorua fighters have a great chance of taking national honours at this year's championships.

Han Lee Taekwondo Academy have been successful in winning the right to host this year's Taekwondo New Zealand's Black Belt National Championships.

It is the second time in the last three years the club have hosted the championships which are used to select the New Zealand team.

The event which will be held on July 31 at the Rotorua Sportsdrome will host more than 300 fighters from around the country.

As well as medals and bragging rights, selection in the New Zealand squad are up for grabs with the team competing in November at the Oceania Championships held in New Caledonia.

Han Lee Taekwondo instructor Jason Lee said the club's members were in "intensive" training for the event.

"We have some fighters who are very excited about competing. We have a couple of members who currently hold national titles. So they will be very keen to retain them. I think some of our other members will do well at the tournament as well."

The 24-year-old has been doing taekwondo since he was only five and is a sixth dan black belt. Taekwondo is a family passion with his father Han Lee, an eighth dan taekwondo grandmaster and a two time former world champion.

Lee said it was his father's idea to have the nationals held in Rotorua once again.

"Usually they are held in Auckland or the bigger cities but my father wanted to have them here because it encourages more martial artists from the Bay of Plenty to compete," Lee said.

"It is my father's goal to raise the standard of taekwondo in the [region] and throughout the country. He feels for New Zealand to be competitive internationally we have to encourage more participation at grassroots level."

The club hosted an invitational tournament recently which saw a club from Tonga compete.

"We are finding if we host tournaments here in Rotorua competitors want to come here because it is a beautiful city with lots of things to do when they are not competing."

Han Lee Taekwondo member Chanbin Lim said he was looking forward to the nationals.

"I won a gold medal at the last tournament so I would like to do the same at the nationals."

The Western Heights High School student said was training between five and six times a week for the tournament. The club will also hold a Maori taekwondo tournament in October.

"We were suppose to host it at the same time but it was decided to hold it separately."

• Taekwondo NZ Black Belt National Championships, Rotorua Sportsdrome, July 31.