Kuwait National Team

KUWAIT: The 2nd All-Asia Weight Category Kyokushin Karate Championship (IKO), will kick off at 4 pm today at Kuwait Sports Club Hall, under the patronage of Director General of Public Authority for Sports Dr Humoud Fulaiteh and in the presence of Director of Sports for all Hamid Al-Hazim, Director of Sports Union and Committees Khalifa Al-Tarawah, President of Kuwait Sports Club Abdelaziz Al-Marzouq, his Deputy Khalid Al-Ghanim, Secretary General of Karate Federation Emad Behbehani, President of the Asian Federation Peter Chong, Secretary General of International Kyokushin Organization (IKO) Katasuhito Gorai along with ambassadors of participating countries and other officials.

Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee Khalid Al-Munaye said his staff was ready to start the competition adding that the technical meeting will be held in the morning in the presence of heads of delegations. He said that this is the strongest amongst all the other Asian competitions for qualification purposes to the world championship set to be held in Nov 2019 in Tokyo. The winner will directly qualify to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Bangladeshi, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran and the host country Kuwait have all sent their most talented participants. Kuwait will be represented by Omar Al-Duaij in the under 70kg, Abdallah Behzad and Ahmad Haider in the under 90kg, Ahmad Abdelsamad Ali, Salah Behzad and Mohammad Al-Saleh in the open above 90kg. The doors will be opened for the public at 3 pm.

By Abdellatif Sharaa