Karate Premier League kicks off

KARACHI: The 2018 Karate 1-Premier League, which kick-started in Paris on Friday, is the beginning of an Olympic journey for Pakistan’s most accomplished karateka Saadi Abbas who wants to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in which karate will also make its debut.

Saadi is in Paris as one of the participants in the Premier League. Although no details of his draws could be known on Friday Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) Chairman Mohammad Jehangir said the event is a flagship tournament in the quest to Tokyo 2020 and he is confident Saadi will deliver his best.

“No doubt it’s a major event which will serve as qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics. I am very much confident Saadi will put in his best to secure some points which will help him in his journey towards earning Olympic seat,” Jehangir said.

He said Saadi has trained in Dubai as usual before moving to Paris to feature in the event which will carry the world’s mega stars.As per rules 100 top karatekas in each weight category are eligible to take part in the Premier League which will conclude on Sunday (tomorrow).

Saadi’s world ranking is 81 in the -75kg kumite class. It’s just the start of the Olympic quest and he will have to feature in maximum qualifiers in two years which will decide his Olympic fate.Saadi is Pakistan’s most successful karateka as he has to his credit two Commonwealth Championships gold medals, US Open gold and Asian Championship gold.

Last year Saadi finished fifth in the World Karate 1 Series A Karate Championship held in Istanbul in September. As there are only four Olympic weights (60kg, 75kg, 84kg and 84kg+), efforts are being made to clarify qualifying rules under which different weights will have to be merged to create a system.

PKF wants to train its cream effectively so that someone could qualify for the Tokyo 2020.“We want to have someone in the Olympics 2020 which will be the first for karate. We have already written to International Olympic Committee (IOC) to help PKF under its Olympic Solidarity scheme. If we are responded positively then it will be of great help as we will be able to prepare the top two seeds including Saadi and Quetta’s Naseer Ahmed (-67kg). And also focus will be made on three more and a pool of five would be prepared for the Olympic test,” Jehangir said.

Asian Games, to be held in Indonesia this summer, will also offer opportunity, particularly, to Saadi to press for Olympic ticket.“Definitely, Asian Games are very important but a very tough event,” said Jehangir, also the AKF council member. But the issue is that the government is yet to decide anything about camps for the Asian Games in which Pakistan would be featuring in around 29 disciplines.

Jehangir admitted that the cream of the country needs foreign training. “Foreign training is direly needed if you are to prepare for major challenges. We will try to manage some training opportunities for our top athletes,’ Jehangir said.