BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
THE Solomon Islands Karate Federation has confirmed that they are unlucky to join the 17th Oceania Karate Championship in this year.
The two day championship was held on Saturday 4th and Monday June 6 in Noumea, New Caledonia.
The Federation has decided to cancelled their participation due to
Late reaction from authorities to their call.
“We missed the flight from Brisbane to New Caledonia due to late reaction towards our call for support from the responsible authorities,’’ said Coach and trainer, Kenihiria Rex.
New Caledonia was supposed to hold the competition in 2020 from June 12 to 14, but was cancelled days into the sporting shutdown caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in March of that year.
Mr. Kenihiria pointed out that the government must recognise the importance of individual’s sports.
“The government must recognise individual sports because in every Pacific games individual sports cannot missed out from winning a medal for the country,’’ said Kenihiria.
He told Rawsport that this should be the first time the SI Karate federation to participate such Championship as the body have just recently affiliate with Oceania Karate Federation.
“We have just recently affiliate with OKF and that is for the first time the Solomon Island karate Federation (SIKF) is being part with the OKF since its establishment,’’ he said.
‘It is important to attend such championships because our senior students need to be accredited by our International Federations (IFS) for us to have a qualified referee and coaches rather than hiring someone from outside, as usually being done,’’ said trainer Kenihiria.
He disclosed that this is in line with the legacy plan of the 2023 Pacific Games Organising Committee (GOC) for Federation to have its own accredited referees and coaches should there any future Karate competitions.
He revealed that another important of the participation is to expose Solomon Islands Karate athletes to increase their confidence in the international arenas.
“It should be part of our athlete’s experience and preparation towards the Pacific games 2023 next year,’’ said Kenihiria.
The Oceania Karate Championship involved four categories and they are Individual’s Events, Individual Events Kumite, Team Events Kata and Team Events Kumite.
However he said that in spite of that, the Federation will continue with their normal training as usual and looking to host local Karate competition for the athletes as they prepare for the PG2023.
“We will continue with our normal trainings and maybe we will try and host local karate competition for our athletes at least somewhere around next month,’’ he said.
“We will made known the date once we formalised everything, at the moment we are still seeking funding from organisations and the government to the support the proposed local event,’’ said Kenihiria.
