18 TH KOI WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT

KUCHING: The national karate team, comprising both elite and back-up exponents, are aiming for a bigger haul of gold medals at the 18th Kobe Osaka International (KOI) World Cup this year.
Chief coach Patrick Lim said Malaysia did very well at the 17th KOI World Cup in Latina, Italy last year, winning five gold, two silver and two bronze medals to finish third overall behind Russia and Egypt.

“We are aiming to capture more gold medals in Kuching, or at least maintain our record in Latina,” he told The Borneo Post at State Indoor Stadium here yesterday.
While banking on the elite team to deliver the medals, Lim is also bringing in the back-up squad for the exposure and experience.

Sixteen of the Malaysian exponents are down for the kata and 26 for the kumite.
Lim said they were able to bring in more exponents this year because the World Cup is held in Malaysia.“Holding the tournament at home means we can save a lot and also expose the back-up team,” he added. Lim said before coming to Kuching, the Malaysian team had been training “very hard” at two national training centres.“The elite and back-up squads trained together … the kata team in Penang and the kumite team at National Sports Council, Bukit Jalil.
“One thing good about our team is that it is made up of seasoned, up and coming and new exponents. The experienced exponents will lead the potential ones while the newcomers will get to learn by watching their seniors in action,” he added.

After the World Cup, the national team will go for the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China in September, the SEA Games in Laos in December and the World Junior Karate Championship in Morocco. Lim is also a technical delegate of the organising committee for the Asian Games and the Asian Martial Games.

Meanwhile, Sabah, represented by Kobe Osaka Sabah, will use the World Cup here to expose their young exponents.The team comprises 35 members, three coaches and two team managers. The chief coach is Lorant Losinbin, assisted by Ian Paul and Kelvin Chin.“This is the first time we are bringing such a big team to the World Cup. We sent only six exponents to Latina last year, also for the exposure,” said Kobe Osaka Sabah president Loh Beng Hooi.
Loh, also the 18th KOI World Cup tournament director and World Karate Federation’s Referees Commission administrative controller, said no medal target had been set for the team.
“However, we are hoping our best bets … 15-year-old Siew Wen Jin and 14-year-old Tan Ming Zu … can deliver a bronze medal each in their individual and team kata events,” he said.
Wen Jin was the silver medallist at the Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur last year.
On a related development, Loh said about 400 exponents from 26 countries would be taking part in more than 30 categories in the competition, starting today.
The teams are Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Malaysia, Labuan, Sarawak, Sabah, Pahang, The Netherlands, Norway, The Philippines, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Croatia, Morocco, China and Japan.
According to Loh, some of the countries have pulled out for one reason or another.
“We have received a total of 635 competition entries and 300 seminar entries thus far. There will be a slight adjustment to the competition schedules as the remainders of the Iranian team are expected to arrive today. The first batch of about 45 Iranian exponents arrived last night,” he said.

Some of the categories to be contested from July 23-26 are veteran individual kata, boys and girls individual kata, cadet individual kata, junior individual kata, senior individual kata, mixed team kata, boys and girls individual kumite, cadet individual kumite, junior individual kumite, senior individual kumite and special individual kumite. The draw was conducted yesterday.