BY JOY OFASIA
SOLOMON Islands Karate Federation has commenced preparation for the 2023 Pacific Games scheduled to kick off in November, next year in Honiara.
Solomon Islands Karate Federation (SIKF), President Rex Kenihiria disclosed last week, during an exclusive interview with Raw Sports.
According to him, the team has embarked on an intensive preparation at the Solomon Islands National Institute of Sport (SINIS) in Honiara to keep the athletes physically fit and technically ready for the task ahead, saying that the athletes are doing well in their efforts to compete favorably ahead of the 2023 Pacific Games when it finally gets underway.
Meanwhile, Rex acknowledged the karate girls for showing further improvements in their training preparations over the past weeks.
He said the female karate athletes’ training performance has improved in terms of strength and speed.
“They started to develop confidence, especially during the combat sessions (sparring and tournament drills) during training.
“SINIS provides the best training facilities in the country for the athletes to access plus it has motivated the athletes’ performance and attendance towards their training preparations ahead of the upcoming Games.
“The female karate athletes attending karate weekly training programs are divided into two categories, i.e. active and inactive participants. This means, there are 40 active female participants and 35 inactive participants,” the President said.
Rex said that the current karate athletes are among the first 30 scholarship recipients who are doing their training program at SINIS every week for the first six months.
“Another 30 karate athletes will be selected for scholarships in July this year because it is an ongoing scholarship program to develop and prepare the athletes for the Pacific Games,” he said.
He encouraged the female athletes and the rest of the karate team to never give up but to always stay in the fight and strive for excellence.
