Saadi crashes out of Karate 1 Series A

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier karateka and former Asian champion Saadi Abbas on Sunday crashed out of Karate 1 Series A at Istanbul in the fourth round of the -75 kg male kumite competitions.

The former two-time Commonwealth Championships gold medallist lost to a Russian fighter. The event had 190 entries. Saadi, also a US open gold medallist, was off to a fine start when he defeated Almaazmi Muntasir Abdullah of Egypt in the first round. He went on to whack fighters from Jamaica and Italy before losing in the fourth fight. This was one of the qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It was the fifth event in which Saadi featured this year. He still has to field in four Premier Leagues, two more Karate Series A, Asian Championship, Shanghai Open and an Olympic qualifying event, which will be held next year.The top three from the latter event will move to Olympics. Every win helps fighters accumulate points which in the end will determine Olympic entries.