What went wrong? Pakistan's poor show at Asian Karate Championship

The country’s seasoned karateka and former Asian champion Saadi Abbas has blamed the system for Pakistan’s poor performance in the recently held Asian Karate Championship in Hangzhou, China.

In the recently-concluded Asian Championship, Saadi lost 5-0 in the second round of the -84kg competition to Uzbekistan’s fighter Shukhratjon Nomozov.

In the first round, Saadi, an Islamic Games silver medalist, downed Waleed Alnoumas of Kuwait 8-0.

In the +84kg, Mohammad Awais lost to Islombek Ismatullayev of Uzbekistan 2-0 in the second round after he got a bye in the first round.

In the -50kg women competition, Laiba Zia fell at the first hurdle when she was beaten by China’s Junhui Wang 6-0.

In -55kg, Sabira Gul took a good start when she defeated Jenelle Maryanne Montalvc of Philippines 5-4 before downing Sirikamonnate Chokprasertgul of Thailand 5-3. However, she fell in the third round to Chinese Taipei’s fighter Tsui-Ping Ku 3-0 to get eliminated.

“Fighters in Pakistan have stopped taking interest in karate due to no facilities and no encouragement,” Saadi told Nukta after Pakistan failed to deliver in the continental event which concluded early this week.

“Neither solid camps are held nor fighters are getting motivation. They don’t know which future events they will play in. The government should make a plan and athletes should be provided with a clear picture so that they could know which events they will have to feature in."

Reward system

Saadi, also a former two-time Commonwealth Championship gold medalist, also called for a reward system in order to motivate the athletes.

“The athletes also should know the reward status so that they could make their concerted efforts to achieve their goals. If they are not rewarded and uncertainty prevails around then how will an athlete be motivated,” he said.

“I remember that former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf had given Rs1 million each to athletes which is why their families were ready to back their children as they knew that they would be rewarded. Now the things are different since no one cares. At that time Pakistan Sports Trust (PST) and Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) were helping the athletes and things were going in a right direction. If that kind of system is revived then things will start improving. And if we go on the same line as we are going these days then I assure you that sports will be destroyed,” he added.

Saadi Abbas reacts during a fight in the Asian Karate Championship in Hangzhou, China.Pakistan Karate Federation

Financial constraints

A Pakistan Karate Federation senior official admitted that the country is struggling to keep pace with international progress due to financial concerns.

“We are going down and there is no doubt about it,” the official told Nukta.

“The issue is that due to sky-rocketing inflation, rising tickets and accommodation prices it is now not in the grasp of the federation to manage the things the way they should be handled. Without massive financial input it would be extremely difficult to arrest the decline,” the official said.

“Arab nations have developed a lot. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China and Japan are investing heavily in the sport and we cannot match them. Look, India also struggled in China’s event despite investing heavily. They had fielded 25 fighters but only two fighters won some matches. They did not win any medal. Karate has become more competitive and you need to give solid exposure to your fighter and it needs resources.

“Look, Kazakhstan has hired a French coach a few years ago and is still working. We cannot afford foreign coach for long term.”

Pakistan claimed bronze last time in the 2013 Asian Championship in Dubai through Saadi Abbas. Saadi had also lifted bronze in the 2012 Tashkent Asian Championship. He also clinched gold in the 2011 Quanzhu Asian Championship.

The next target of national fighters is the World Championship in Pamplona, Spain, to be held from November 22-24. It remains to be seen how PKF will handle it and how many fighters it will plan to send there. However, this correspondent understands that it would not be easy for the federation to send more than one fighter to this event.