Karate training suffers delay

The buildup of the national karate team for various Olympic qualifying tournaments hit a snag following the delay of its training camp in Istanbul.

According to Karate Pilipinas Inc. president Richard Lim, their flight to the Turkish capital that was initially scheduled Monday was moved to 15 March after they failed to secure the necessary documents and approvals.

The flight would be rescheduled to 15 March.

With that, they have no choice but to miss a crucial tourney — the Karate1 Premier League — that would also be held in Istanbul on 12 March.

“The flight would be rescheduled to 15 March,” said Lim in a text message.

“The original plan was to go there early for quarantine procedures before our competition on 12 March.”

Lim said based on their original plan, they would train with their Turkish coach Okay Arpa and the Turkish national team in Istanbul until 15 May.

From there, they would fly to Paris for their lone qualifying tournament in June.

Lim, however, said despite the delay, he is still optimistic over the morale of his wards as they are expected to see action in various pocket tourneys in Istanbul.

Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Jamie Lim, Ivan Agustin, Sharief Afif and Alwyn Batican as well as foreign-based bets Junna Tsukii and Joane Orbon are all expected to join the team in the Turkish training.

“Although we might miss the tournament, we’ll still push through with our training camp,” Lim said.

“We’re just waiting for whatever might happen next. We know that the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) is really working for it and we still have enough time to train.”