Pak karate squad leaves for Amman today

KARACHI: Hoping to win some medals Pakistan karate squad will fly out of Islamabad for Jordan on Tuesday (today) to feature in the 15th Asian Karate Championships slated to be held at Prince Rashed Martial Arts Centre Al Hussein Sports City, Amman, from July 12-15.

On July 11 fighters’ registration will be made with the fights to begin the next day, a senior official of Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) told ‘The News’ from Lahore.

The touring party has also the country’s leading fighter Saadi Abbas (-75kg), highly talented Naseer Ahmed (-67kg), Zafar Iqbal (-60kg), Mohammad Kashif (-55kg), Israr-ul-Haq (individual kata), Kulsoom (-68kg) and Qurat-ul-Ain (+68kg). Shah Mohammad would accompany the squad as coach cum manager. The international referee Naseem Qureshi will also go with the squad to deliver his services as referee. He has also been selected for the same job for the forthcoming Asian Games penciled in for August 18 to September 2 in Indonesia.

Saadi had won gold medal in the 2011 China Asian Karate Championships in -67kg (kumite). He then went on to grab bronze in the 2012 Uzbekistan and 2013 Dubai editions. He failed to win medal in the 2015 Yokohama, Japan edition and missed the 2017 edition in Kazakhstan due to visa issue. Pakistan karate squad has been undergoing training in Islamabad since June 20. Before that the fighters were training in Lahore until the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) decided to stop the camps on May 15 due to lack of money. The fighters had to train individually until the resumption of the camp on June 20.

Meanwhile the organisers have announced that the finishing touches have been given to three venues in Al Hussein Youth City in Jordan.