T

he Indonesian karate team has secured two gold medals from the men’s and women’s group at the Asian Karate Championships for cadet and junior categories ages 21 and 15, which was held in Makassar from Thursday to Friday last week.

The first position was secured by the Japanese contingent, who brought home 20 golds, two silvers and three bronzes, followed by the Iranian contingent with six golds, four silvers and 15 bronzes.

Indonesia failed to achieve more medals than the four it secured last year at the World Karate-do Federation (WKF) tournament held in Serpong, Tangerang. Two karate athletes, who won gold last year, only secured silver medals from the Makassar karate championship, Fakih Karomi and Ahmad Sigi.

Commenting on the results, Indonesian team manager Monang Napitupulu said it was the best the team could achieve.

“All the athletes gave it their all. Our only problem is that our opponents are in prime condition,” he said.

Coach Syamsuddin Barkani acknowledged that the Japanese opponents displayed more aggression and a more mature mentality during the games, saying that those were the biggest contributing factors of victory aside from skills.

“Many of our athletes were defeated by their Japanese opponents. We have learned our lesson,” he said.

Ardy Ganggas of the Indonesian Karate Association (Forki) said the association intended to conduct a thorough evaluation based on the athletes’ current performance in order to find out what common mistakes were made during the fights.