Turkey’s training on the cards for Pak karatekas

KARACHI: Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) is mulling an option to send its lot to Istanbul for two weeks training to prepare for the Islamic Games slated to be held in Konya, Turkey, from August 9-18.

According to the PKF plan, the squad will undergo training in Turkey's capital before moving to Konya for featuring in the Islamic Games.

“Yes we are mulling an option and I think it will help us to prepare well if we send our lot to Turkey around two weeks or so in advance,” PKF chairman Mohammad Jehangir told 'The News' from Lahore on Saturday.

“We have a coach in Turkey and his services will be hired for that limited time. It will be a great breakthrough if we are able to do so,” said Jehangir.

“I also have good relations with the Turkish Karate Federation and this will also assist us. We already have the experience of holding camps there two times in the past. We are definitely looking forward to executing our plans to give some better support to our fighters ahead of the Islamic Games which are competitive keeping in view the presence of world-level fighters from Turkey, Egypt and Iran,” Jehangir said.

The PKF also intends to seek assistance from the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) in implementing its plans.

“Definitely we will discuss this with the PSB. Actually we could not go to hire a foreign coach as camps normally also break in the middle and it creates issues sometimes if you have hired a foreign coach. If the state backs us in hiring a Turkish coach during our stay in Turkey I think it will help us to do something solid towards achieving our goals in the Islamic Games,” said Jehangir .

As many as ten men and six women karatekas are training at the PSB Coaching Centre Lahore to prepare for the Islamic Games.

The PKF has already managed accreditation cards for 15 male and 15 female fighters and the final selection will be made once the PSB will decide how many fighters the state can support for featuring in the Islamic Games.

“Yes we will finalise our squad when we know the final decision of the government. We have put the top lot in the camp on the basis of rankings in the last national event. We can field eight male and eight female fighters in the Islamic Games as per rules but it depends on the support of the state,” the official said.

“Our normal practice is that we start trials 15 to 20 days before an event and the top lot is picked for the target event,” Jehangir said.

He said that Pakistan has the talent in karate to win medals in the Commonwealth Games.

“You know we picked silver in the 2017 Baku Islamic Games through our star fighter Saadi Abbas. We also have Mohammad Awais and Naseer Ahmed who have the ability to win medals in the Konya event,” the official said.

“Awais is a young fighter with killer instinct and I hope he will make an impressive Commonwealth Games debut. He already has snared a bronze at the Asian junior level and is one of our top medal hopes in the Islamic Games,” Jehangir said.

“And Saadi, no doubt, is our highly experienced fighter with loads of medals in the international circuit and certainly we expect again from him in Konya,” he said.

He added that Saadi would also join camp in Lahore once he completes his event which is scheduled in Dubai.

Saadi has to his credit gold in the Asian Championship, two golds in the Commonwealth Karate Championship and a gold in the US Open. He is the best ever fighter the country has produced in the discipline.

National karatekas faced some trouble when their camp was stopped on May 23 due to a long march from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However the PSB then set up the camp for them in Lahore on June 7.

There is no karate in the Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.