Saadi remains confident despite low finish at Asian Karate

KARACHI: Pakistan’s premier karateka Saadi Abbas remains confident despite a seventh-place finish in the Asian Karate Championships in Tashkent. He says he still has a solid qualifying chance for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“You know Asian Championships was one of the qualifying events for Olympics. Unfortunately I got seventh place because of the toughest draws. But the way I fought and a win out of three bouts will definitely improve my Olympic ranking,” Saadi told ‘The News’ from Tashkent on Sunday.

Saadi, whose Olympic ranking was 21 before the continental event, began his journey with a loss when he went 2-3 down to Ken Nishimura of Japan in his first fight the other day.

After the loss, Saadi was given a repechage. He won his first bout there when he outsmarted Sandi Firmansyah of Indonesia 4-3. But he faced an exit when he went 0-2 down to Bahman Ghoncheh Asgari of Iran in his next fight.

“If a gold medallist gains 890 points I will certainly claim 350 points and that will help me,” Saadi said.

Ken of Japan, against whom Saadi lost his first bout, was the eventual gold medallist of the -75 kilogramme competitions. The 23-year-old is a sure Olympic participant.

“I have this year events in Japan, Moscow and Madrid and then there will be events next year. I have eight to nine months. I will try my best to qualify for Olympics,” Lyari-born Saadi said.

He said in August he would plan for his future fights as those would decide his Olympic fate. “I will also contact my sponsors, Toyota, to see how much they could support me and would plan accordingly,” said Saadi, who is the sole Pakistani player to have been seriously fighting for an Olympic seat.

He is settled in Dubai and would write history if he qualified for Tokyo 2020. He will have to be in the top five of the world if he wants to confirm his berth in Olympics.