Aswan, Elias enter top eight in individual kata
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)