High hopes on karatekas

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is pinning its hopes on the national karate team as it marches to the 30th Southeast Asian Games that the country will host from 30 November to 11 December.

In fact, PSC chairman William “Butch” Ramirez sent the karatekas to a two-month training and exposure in a bid to improve their previous finish of three silver and four bronze medals in the 29th edition of the biennial meet in Kuala Lumpur in 2017.

The national kumite squad has been training in Turkey under Turkish mentor Okay Arpa since last month and would be back on 30 October in time for the peaking phase of its preparation.

On the other hand, the national kata team is in Japan since last month and would be back in early November.

“The PSC has been extensively supporting the training of our athletes both at home and overseas,” said Ramirez, who also stands as chief of mission of Team Philippines.

“We are not dropping our chances. Athletes should get their training and exposure for the biennial meet.”

Leading the training program is Jamie Lim, a summa cum laude at the University of the Philippines and daughter of former Philippine Basketball Association player Samboy Lim.

Lim won the -68kg kumite in the Amator Spor Haftasi Karate Championship in Sakarya in Turkey recently, giving her an inside track to emerge as gold medalist in the prestigious 11-nation conclave together with Filipino-American Jone Orbin and Filipino-Japanese Junna Tsukii and Sheriff Afif.