Indonesia eyes 2 gold medals at AKF tournament
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The Indonesian karate team is set to take part in the AKF (Asia Karate Federation) Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, upbeat to bring home two gold medals.
The event, which will run from July 14 to 17, also features events in junior categories.
“We are confident two gold medals can be won by our athletes. They can make it, because they are our best junior and senior karatekas,” Hendardji Soepandji, the chairman of the Indonesian Karate Federation (Forki), said during a ceremony to see off the contingent on Monday.
Indonesia’s contingent comprises 12 senior and 17 junior karatekas.
Hendardji claimed that they were the best national hopefuls in their classes.
The senior team is those having participated in the WKF Premier League 2012, including Faizal Zainuddin, Aswar, and Fidelys Lolobua, who managed to retain the team’s kata gold at home they had won in 2011 in Turkey.
In the junior level, Indonesia’s young athletes are claimed to have fared well at the AKF Cadet-Junior event in Hong Kong in 2010.
“The athletes went through a well prepared training regime. Joining the training camp since April should be enough to help them shape-up,” Hendardji said.
Trainer Omita Olga Ompi hoped the mature performance shown by Faizal and teammates could provoke a morale boost into winning the two gold medals as expected.
“The men’s kata team carries the best hope for the gold. If the opponents, like Japan, play the same athletes as they did in the WKF Premier League in Jakarta, we are optimistic about the chances. We have no idea what the
cards Japan will play [in Tashkent],” Omita said.
Apart from Japan, which is the country of origin of the sport, Iran, Malaysia and China are regarded as the teams to reckon with.
Iran emerged as the overall winner in Jakarta while China skipped the tournament.
“China did not come to the Premier League. They have two world champions,” Omita said.
Faizal said that he was keen to improve their bronze collection in the last event.
“Hopefully we can do it, at least we maintain what we got in the last AKF event,” said Faizal, who also competes in individual kata.