National karate championships scheduled for Nov

Sports

THE Papua New Guinea Karate-do Federation will be staging its 27th national championships in November.
The event will be held in Port Moresby from Nov 4-6 and will feature both kumite (sparring) and kata (patterns) for various age groups and weight divisions.
The categories that will be contested in kata are; 8-9 years, 10-11 years, 12-13 years, cadets (14-15 years), juniors (16-17 years), Under-21 (18-20 years) and seniors.
Categories for the kumite competition are; 8 years, 9 years, 10 years, 11 years, 12 years, Cadets, Juniors, Under 21 and seniors.
All events are World Karate Federation events and only WKF rules will apply during the competition. This means there will be no full contact sparring, tameshiwari (breaking) and kobudo (weapons) events.
Clubs who want to participate must ensure that their annual affiliation fees to the Federation are paid.
PNG Karate-Do Federation president Carl Mari urged clubs and associations to start finalising their teams and travel arrangements now to avoid difficulties that may arise at the last minute.
He said the national karate championships was an important event on the federation’s calendar and urged all to attend.
“The national championships is where the federation identifies athletes for immediate international engagements, whereas the PNG Games helps for talent identification for future development,” Mari said.
Speaking from Noumea, New Caledonia, where he is attending the Oceania Karate Federation (OKF) Congress, Mari said OKF had approved an seniors championships to be held every other year, apart from the main Oceania championships which are held bi-annually.
This decision has been made to allow Oceania athletes to earn ranking points for possible 2020 Olympic qualification.
The first OKF seniors championships will be held in April in Sydney, followed by the next main OKF championships in 2018.