Saadi now eyes Asian Karate C’ships

KARACHI: After facing exit in the fourth round in the Karate 1 Series A in Istanbul a few days ago, Pakistan’s leading karateka Saadi Abbas has now set his eyes on the Asian Championships which will be held from July 19-21 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

“Yes it’s my next target. You know continental event counts a lot if your are to qualify for Olympics,” Saadi told The News from Dubai. The former two-time Commonwealth Championships gold medallist lost to a Russian fighter in the fourth round in the event in Istanbul which had 190 entries.

Saadi, also the US open good medallist, was off to a fine start when he defeated Almaazmi Muntasir Abdullah of Egypt in his first round. He then went on to whack fighters from Jamaica and Italy before losing in the fourth fight to a Russian rival. This was one of the qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

This was the fifth event which Saadi featured in the competitions this year. He still have 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. Every win helps fighters to accumulate points which in the end will determine his Olympic journey.

Saadi plans to work with Turkish coach Yavuz Karamllglu until the Asian Championship. “The Series A in Istanbul was very tough competition. In the first three fights my foot movement was good and everything went well. The fourth round was also good but I made some mistakes which I had not made before,” Saadi said.

“Previously I did not have coach and so there was no one to point it out to me what mistake I used to make. This time I had taken the assistance of a Turkish coach Karamllglu and he pointed out to me such mistakes which I did not know about them before.

After my fight against the Russian which I lost in Series A in Istanbul he showed to me its video and told me about the big mistakes which I made and advised me to work on them,” Saadi said.

“Every time I face such an issue that there is no one with me who could tell me what type of mistake I make. Now I plan to work with this coach for one month until Asian Championship so that I could perform well in that,” Saadi said.

Saadi is the only fighter of Pakistan who has been persistently featuring in almost every qualifying round for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He aims to finish at a high at the end of this year to press for an Olympic berth. If he did so he will write a history in Pakistan’s karate.