THE country’s aspirants in Olympic karate are hoping their immersion in Turkey would work wonders when they vie in the Tokyo qualifiers in June in Paris.
“All the best world champions are here,” Richard Lim, president of Karate Pilipinas, told BusinessMirror on Friday. “Their program is undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best, in the world.”
Six Filipinos, led by 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Jamie Lim, have intensified their preparation for the June 11 to 13 qualifiers in Paris with the help of the Turkish Karate Federation.
With Lim (women’s 68 kg) are 2019 SEA Games bronze winner Joanne Orbon (women’s 61 kg), Ivan Agustin (men’s -75 kg), Sharief Afif (men’s +75 kg), Jason Macaalay (men’s -67 kg) and Alwyn Batican (men’s -67 kg).
Filipino-Japanese Junna Tsukii (women’s -50 kg), also a 2019 SEA Games gold medalist, is training in Serbia but will join the team in the Premier League tournament in Lisbon, Portugal, set on April 30 and May 1.
The national karatekas started training collectively at the Inspire Sports Institute bubble in Calamba last February along with boxers and taekwondo jins, but flew to Istanbul on March 15 for their Turkish training camp at the ballroom of the Clarion Hotel in Uskudar.
Lim said being embedded in a karate world power would help the Filipino athletes improve their skills and focus.
“We trained with some Turkish European champions and then the Mexican team joined us,” he said. “The Azerbaijan squad will be arriving later to join us.”
Turkey boasts of several world champions among them Serap Oczelik Arapoglu (-50 kg women’s kumite), Ugur Aktas (-84 kg men’s kumite), Eray Samdan (-60 kg men’s kumite), Erman Eltemur (-75 kg men’s kumite) and Burak Uygur (-67 kg kumite).
“Our coach is also a Turkish,” said Lim, referring to Coach Okay Arpa. “Our victory will be their victory, too.”
Lim said Turkey, Iran, Japan, Spain, Italy and China are the top tier teams in world karate.
The Tokyo Olympics are a hundred days to away from July 23 to August 8.
Afif is the only Muslim in the Philippine karate team.
They will be leaving Istanbul on June 1 for Paris, and Lim expects at least two Filipino karate athletes to qualify for the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games set July 23 to August 8. All the athletes should make it inside the top 3 of each weight category in the French qualifying tourney to qualify for an Olympic spot.
Lim is also finding a way to get the athletes vaccinated with an anti-Covid-19 shot in Istanbul.
“We already asked the Philippine consulate here but they have no access to the vaccine because the government here is prioritizing the senior citizens and frontliners. So I asked my other Filipino coordinator here if we can get a vaccine. So by next week, we will know if we can get one or not,” said Lim.