Pakistan's top-notch Karatika, Saadi Abbas to feature in Karate 1 Series A 2019
Premier Pakistani karatika, Ghulam Saadi Abbas will be representing Pakistan in the 2019 Karate 1 Series A which are slated to be held from 17 to 19 May in Turkey.
Dubai based, Pakistani top karatika, Ghulam Saadi Abbas, eyes on victory in the 2019 Karate 1 Series as he is the main hope of Pakistan for next year’s Tokyo Olympics keeping in view his credentials. Saadi left on 5th May for Istanbul to practice more for his upcoming fights in the mentioned series and is working hard on his skills to improve so he would be able to win this as well as as many as possible, championships.
Saadi's collection of titles includes him being a former Asian champion, US Open gold medalist, two-time Commonwealth Championship gold medalist and another of his recent win of a gold medal in the Omar Bin Hayder Karate Cup 2019.
Former Asian champion, Saadi has been participating in majority of the qualifying events fore upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020. He was on an International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship under which the fighter is yet to receive 3000 dollars for four months. However, he has proceeded to Istanbul now without a sponsor.
The fighter recently found a major sponsor which would back him for his bid to qualify for the 2020 Olympics. and he seemed hopeful that the company would issue him a cheque in June.
He got ninth position in Paris Open in January 2019. He then faced third round exit in the Dubai Open in February. Saadi ended 12th in the Series A in Austria in March and in April he faced first round exit in the Rabat Open. Currently, Saadi holds 27th Olympic ranking. But he is hopeful that he will improve it drastically as he is yet to play in the Asian Championship to be held in Vietnam in July. To which he said,
“I have made up my mind to come in top five in the Olympic rankings at the end of this year. If I am able to come in top five I will certainly qualify,”
Out of ten spots up for grab in 75 KG weight class, five will be decided by March 2020 and then in April Olympic qualification championship will be held. The leading three from there will make it to the Olympics. One of the remaining two seats will be given to the best player of the continent with the other expected to be offered a wildcard.
Saadi said that playing without a coach or a manager affected a fighter psychologically but he still intends to get the services of Turkish coach, Yavuz Karamollaoglu for a couple of months until the Asian Championship in July.
“It has been a problem and sometimes I feel that I am fighting alone. Former Turkey coach, Yavuz Karamollaoglu is helping me here. He wants to see me in Olympics. He has a load of experience, having won around 12 European titles and six world titles. If he kept coaching me until Asian Championship in July then it would help me a lot. I have to play around four Premier Leagues, two Series A and Asian Championship and if I picked a few medals it would certainly bring me close to 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
Saadi is also preparing to take part in the Shanghai Open Championship which is scheduled to be held from 6 to 8 June, this year.
