The Indonesian Karate-Do Federation (Forki) will send 29 of its first-tier karatekas to the International Finnish Open Cup 2013 in Tampere, Finland slated for Aug
he Indonesian Karate-Do Federation (Forki) will send 29 of its first-tier karatekas to the International Finnish Open Cup 2013 in Tampere, Finland slated for Aug. 31-Sept.1.
The competition will see more than 200 karatekas from around 30 countries taking part and comes ahead of the upcoming Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG) in September and Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in December.
'This year their peak performance hopefully will be in the SEA Games and Asian Games,' Forki Chairman Hendardji Soepandji said during a post-Idul Fitri gathering (halal bihalal) in Jakarta on Friday.
He hoped the Finland outing would shape up the athletes further and appealed to the entourage to try their best.
'In Forki we have seven-tier athletes who have been training from as early as eight years of age. We hope there will be no shortage of karateka for competitions,' he said.
Forki is looking at early development with this year's Education and Culture Minister Cup in Ternate, North Maluku, in November being dedicated to the seventh-, sixth- and fifth-tier athletes and Home Minister Cup in Denpasar, Bali on Aug. 29-Sept. 1 for the fourth-, third- and second-tier karatekas.
Those who put on a good performance in the Bali competition would be sent to the world junior and cadet competition in Spain in November, he said.
For the International Finnish Open Cup, Forki has set its eye on three gold medals, which according to Hendardji was realistic considering the previous achievement at the World Karate Federation Karate Premier League in Jakarta in June.
At the Bung Karno Indoor Stadium, Indonesia was the overall winner, collecting four of 14 gold medals on offer.
The hosts also added four silver and seven bronze medals to the tally in the tournament that featured athletes from 24 countries. The haul surpassed the two-gold target.
For the ISG and SEA Games, Hendardji said that he hoped they could make a clean sweep of the medals.
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