Karate: WAPDA shines on opening day

Grabs two gold medals in national karate event.

PESHAWAR:

Wapda ended the opening day of the 21st National Karate Tournament at the top with two gold medals at the Peshawar Sports Complex yesterday.

Khalid Changaizi grabbed a gold in the Individual Kata category with Wapda’s other gold coming in the Team Kata category where it finished ahead of Pakistan Army.

“I’ve been practising regularly for the last three months under the supervision of my coach and the effort is paying off,” Changaizi told The Express Tribune. Meanwhile, Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) President Muhammad Jahangir said that the main reason behind the tournament was to dig out new talent and prepare it for upcoming international tournaments.

“We will select a team at the end of this tournament that will be sent to Iran next month for international-level training,” said Jahangir. “We want to prepare them for the South Asian Championships.”

The event has around 100 players taking part in different categories. Wapda are the defending champions and will be looking for a defence of their title against Pakistan Army, Railway, Police, Sindh, Balochistan, Islamabad, Fata and the hosts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2012.