Aswan, Elias enter top eight in individual kata

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Indonesians Aswan Ali and Elias Tande cruised into the quarterfinals of the men's individual kata event in the 7th Shotokan Karate-Do International Federation (SKIF) World Championship here.

Aswan beat Jimmy Verreeth of Belgium in Jion style on Friday to reach the champion's pool. While Elias Tande outclassed Marco Wager of Germany in another pool playoff, that was also attended by Gen. (ret). Wiranto, chairman of the Indonesian Karate-do Association (Forki).

But Wahyu Widayat had to give up to Nobuaki Kanazawa of Japan in another playoff. Kanazawa is the eldest son of SKIF President Hirokazu Kanazawa.

Besides Aswan, Elias and Kanazawa, the other individual kata challengers are Alejandro Castro and Nelson Rodriques of Venezuela, R. Suzuki and Shinji Tanaka of Japan, Sven Geissler of Sweden. The quarterfinals, semis and finals will be on Saturday.

Indonesian coach M. Gusti said that the tough rival would be Japanese Kanazawa, Suzuki and Tanaka. Tanaka won bronze in the 1997 SKIF championship in Milano, Italy.

Japanese Mayumi Kinebuchi won the gold medal in the women's individual kata while fellow countrywoman Yumiko Hayashi won the bronze. The silver medal goes to Ana Martinez of Venezuela.

Venezuelan women's team kata, consisting of Sofia Martinez, Sissy Rivera and Veronica Gonzales, earned the gold medal while the Japanese team of Kinebuchi, Hayashi and Shika Takamashi won the silver. The Swiss team won the bronze.

In the junior event, Indonesian Caya Rahmawati finished third in the 12 to 13 years old individual kumite, while Venezuelan Gretel Barany and Johana Flores won the gold and silver medals.

Ireana Arifin of Indonesia won silver in the 16 to 17 years old girls individual kumite event. Michelle Gatschet of Switzerland finished first while Lisa Milis of Great Britain earned the bronze.

Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri will open the tournament on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, six countries -- Greece, England, Venezuela, United States, Japan and Morocco -- will bid to host the 2004 SKIF world championship, according to Secretary General of the Organizing Committee, Agustinus Dalijanto, on Friday.

Agustinus said that the 2004 host should have been decided in the congress of country members on Thursday.

"Kanazawa (SKIF President) paid respect to the democratic process in deciding the host. So he asked the six countries to write proposals, telling him their strongest reason to be host of the eighth championship. But Kanazawa has yet to set the deadline," he said. (ivy)