Pakistan's # 1 Karatika, Saadi Abbas takes 7th spot at Senior Asian Karate Championships 2019
Ghulam Abbas Saadi secured 7th spot out of several top Karatikas who participated in the 16th Senior Asian Karate Championships which were staged in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Ken of Japan was the first opponent against whom Saadi lost his first bout of the -75 KG competitions in which the Pakistani karatika featured. After the loss, Saadi was given a repechage where he won his first fight against Sandi Firmansyah of Indonesia struggling with final score of 4-3. But he faced an exit when he went 0-2 down to Bahman Ghoncheh Asgari of Iran in his next bout.
While other Pakistani athletes who went with him in the same championship, all face early exits. Mohammad Awais contested in the -84 KG weight class where he lost to Kuiwei of China by 4-7 in the first fight.
Similarly, Naseer Ahmed, in the -67 KG competitions also struggled and faced a blowout by Cheung Chun Hei of Honk Kong on 4-1 before losing to Pranay Sharma of India in the next fight.
Waqar Khan also suffered an early exit after losing to Ramil Jayson Macaalay of Philippines 6-9 in his first fight.
However, Saadi is yet to feature in three more major international events this year and a few next year within the qualifying time-frame where he can definitely increase his Olympic rankings which currently stands at 21st spot.
To his future plans, the Lyari born fighter said,
“I have this year events in Japan, Moscow and Madrid and then there will be events next year. I have eight to nine months. I will try my best to qualify for Olympics. August would plan for my future fights as those would decide my Olympic fate. I will also contact my sponsors, Toyota, to see how much they could support me and would plan accordingly.”
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.
