Young champs shine at Open Karate-do Martial Arts

Hyderabad: The first OGRKI Invitational Open Karate-do Martial Arts Championship-2019 was held on Sunday at Jitta Surender Reddy Indoor Stadium at Champapet in Hyderabad and the winners were also felicitated.

The Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) chairman Allipuram Venkateshwar Reddy was the Chief guest and the She Team coach Sensei Lakmi together with Shihan Ravi were the guest of honour.

Venkateshwar Reddy said: "The word karate is a combination of two kanji (Chinese characters): kara meaning empty and te meaning hand; thus, karate means "empty hand." Adding the suffix "-do" (pronounced "daw"), meaning "the way of path". Karate-do implies karate as a total way of life that goes well beyond the self-defense applications. In traditional karate-do, one is supposed to compete and strive to excel against him/herself."

"Karate is very important for both genders in the present generation especially for self defense. All the youth of present generation should try their best to come up in these kind of self defense sports and prove their talent by grabbing the medals in both national and international level championships," he added.

Taking about the efforts and support from the government, the SATS Chairman said: "Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is also encouraging the sports persons and providing many opportunities like two per cent reservation on Sports Quota to all the Government jobs, so all the students should excel education as well as sports and utilise the opportunities provided by our Telangana government to make your future brighter."

Around 600 participants from several states participated in the competiton. India style chief tech director A. Santosh Kumar, tournament Chief organiser Javed Khan and other organising officials were also present.