Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali has said he expects all stakeholders in karate to hold sustainable competitions and training to improve the sport.

This is in line with one of the government’s main concerns in the Great Design of National Sports (DBON), he explained.

“Karate is one of the main sports in the DBON. We want the training to continue with the 2024 Paris Olympics as one of the goals,” he said while seeing karate matches at XX Papua National Sports Week (PON) at the Kayu Batu Aviation Polytechnic Sports Hall, Jayapura City, on Monday.

He said that the quality of Indonesian karate, especially the ones in the national sports event, is excellent. Thus, the government only needs to optimize the talents of the athletes, he said.

“The XX Papua PON is an opportunity to observe athletes. Perhaps, we can scout new talents to be improved in National Training Center,” he said.

Thus, the Indonesian Karate Federation (FORKI) should pay attention to the competition results of the XX Papua PON, he added.

“In addition, the promotion and relegation system among the karate must be carried out well, thus we can get national athletes who are excellent physically, technically, strategically, and mentally to be our representatives in international competitions,” the minister said.

On the same occasion, he watched the men’s and women’s kata individual events matches and handed the medals to the champions.

In the women’s event, South Sulawesi’s Krisda Putri Aprilia bagged the gold medal, Sicily Agustiani Ora from East Java snatched the silver one, while the bronze medals were pocketed by Central Sulawesi representative Yuningsih Christiana Masoara and Marzella Sekar Damayanti from Banten.

Meanwhile, in the men’s event, the gold medal was won by West Java’s athlete M. Ivan Fairuz, the silver medal was pocketed by Central Java’s Detrina Sabda, while the bronze medals were snatched by Kurniawan from Papua and Andi Dasril from South Sulawesi.

Source: Antara News