Saadi reaches Paris to feature in Karate Premier League

KARACHI: Pakistan's premier karateka and Olympics hope Saadi Abbas has reached Paris to feature in the Karate 1-Premier League which will kick-off from Friday (tomorrow).

"Yes I have reached Paris. Tomorrow will be registration and the competitions will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Saadi told The News from Paris on Wednesday. This would be another vital step for Saadi to get himself closer to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Saadi, currently ranked 23 in Olympics rankings, will need big strides during the next few months in major events to carve a niche in the world's most prestigious extravaganza in which karate would make its debut.

The two-time Commonwealth Championship and US Open gold medallist still have to compete in five more events and he stands with a chance to qualify. The Karate 1-Premier League is the most important in the sense as it has more points after the World Championships which helps an athlete to strengthen his position. Over 700 competitors from no less than 92 countries have confirmed their participation in the 2020 Karate 1-Premier League Paris.

Meanwhile the country's top judoka Shah Hussain also on Wednesday applied for France and Germany visas, his father Hussain Shah told The News from Japan.

"He has applied for visas and hopefully he will get that," Hussain said. Shah is set to feature in a couple of Grand Slams to be held in Paris from February 8-9 and in Germany from February 21-23. Shah, who had represented Pakistan in the 2016 Rio Olympics, has already achieved continental quota as he is Asia's top seed and needs just to maintain it till the end of the qualification phase until late May.

However a senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told this correspondent the other day that Shah's main objective is to make it to the Olympics directly.

So far three shooters including Gulfam Joseph, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir, Khalil Akhtar, javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem and Usman (equestrian) have qualified for the Olympics. Besides Saadi and Shah a taekwondo fighter Haroon Khan also is determined to press for Olympics seat.

National boxers are also aiming to press for seats in the Asian qualifiers to be held in Wuhan, China, from February 4-14 and world qualifiers in Paris in May.