T

he Indonesian karate squad failed to secure a gold medal in the opening of the two-day WKF Karate1 Premier League 2014 at the Tennis Indoor Stadium in Senayan, Jakarta, on Friday.

The home squad was only able to snatch a silver medal in the kata team male event, courtesy of Azwar, Faisal Zainudin and Fidelis Lolobua.

They were forced to bow out to the dominant Iran team comprising Mohammad Khanloo, Roushaniuoskouei and Shaahin, who outscored the Indonesians 5-0.

The Indonesian team, which performed first in the final round, claimed to have demonstrated an almost perfect Kururunfa exercise but the judges unanimously gave the credit to the Iranian team.

'€œWe performed our best. Unfortunately the result was not as had hoped,'€ said Azwar after the final round.

When the countries met during the battle for bronze medal at the Asian Karatedo Federation (AKF) tournament in Guangzhou, China in 2010, Indonesia won. The Iranian team soon avenged their loss a fortnight later at the AKF tournament in Uzbekistan.

'€œAfter this I will focus on my training to prepare for national and international tournaments,'€ said Azwar.

Another Indonesian male kata team '€” which comprised of Andi Dasril, Dwi Dharmawan, Andi Tomy, Aditya Mardana and Aspar Sesaria also failed to advance to the final round and had to be content with the bronze medal after they were defeated by another Iranian team.

In the female kata individual event, Japan'€™s Rimi Kajikawa took home gold after defeating world champion Nguyen Hoang Ngan from Vietnam.

Indonesian Sisilia Agustina Ora, who won her match against Vietnam'€™s Nguyen Thi Hang, won the bronze medal.

In the male kate individual event, it was all-Japan final match between Oki Itaru and Shimbaba Isse with the former winning by 4-1. Indonesia'€™s Fidelis took the bronze medal.

The second day of the tournament will have eight gold medals up for grabs in the individual male and female kumite events.

The Jakarta meet features 218 martial artists from 24 countries and is the fourth of eight series in this season'€™s WKF Karate1 Premier League. The previous series were in France, the Netherlands and Slovenia. Japan, Turkey, Germany and Austria will host the next four.

The Indonesian Karate-do Federation (FORKI) has set a moderate target of winning two out of 17 gold medals on offer considering the karate powerhouses of Japan, Iran and France are all taking part in the championship.