Karatedo targets SEAG gold haul, fires Iran coach

Karatedo has parted ways with national team coach Ali Parvinfar of Iran, hopeful of turning the sport’s floundering fortune into a winning campaign in the Southeast Asian Games.

Starting Sunday, Phl Sports commissioner Ramon Fernandez said Japanese Shin Tsukii will be the kumite (combat) coach while Norman Montalvo will take over in kata (form), replacing Parvinfar who handled both events in the past years.

In the last SEAG under Parvinfar, the country failed to land a gold and settled for three silver and four bronze medals.

Tsukii is the father of Fil-Jap Junna Tsukii, who snared a pair of bronze medals in the Kuala Lumpur SEAG while Montalvo was a former KOI World Cup double gold medalist who also won in the Phl National Games last month.

The team is priming up for the Asian Games slet Aug. 18-Sept. 2 in Palembang, and Jakarta, Indonesia.