LAHORE: The Pakistan karate team departed for Okinawa, Japan on Thursday to participate in 17th Asian Cadet, Junior & U-21 Karate Championship. The championship is being held from May 11 to 13.

Four players and a coach are participating in the championship. Shahbaz Khan, gold medallist at the South Asian Karate Championship, will compete in the Junior -68kg category, Saweel Fayyaz, silver medallist at the South Asian championship, will participate in the Under-21 -75kg category, Sadia Sharif will fight in the Under-21 -55kg event while Ayesha Ibrahim will take part in the Under-21 -61kg. Shah Mohammad Shan will be the coach of the team.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Karate Federation also announced that chief referee of the federation Naseem Qureshi has been nominated as referee by the Asian Karate Federation in the panel of referees for the 18th Asian Games being held in Jakarata, Indonesia.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2018