LABUAN, Feb 20 — Labuan karatekas made this duty-free island proud by clinching gold, silver and bronze medals in the 40th National Senior Karate Championship and 30th National Cadet and Youth Karate Championships.
The four-day event, from Feb 17 and ended today at Dewan MPSJ Serdang, Selangor, saw the participation of more than 400 karate exponents from across the country.
Labuan’s sole gold medal was secured by a 16-year-old student from Sekolah Menengah Labuan, Adib Abdullah Mohd Dzulfadly, after defeating a karate athlete from Selangor in the male junior kumite category below 55kg.
Labuan Karate Association head coach Shihan Aswadee Taba said Adib has shown a consistent and outstanding performance throughout the games.
“After having clinched no gold medal since 2011 (at the national level), Labuan finally ended its national karate championship campaign, with a podium finish of winning gold on the first day of the event,” he said to Bernama when contacted today.
Another promising Labuan karateka, Nur Aneesa Aira Mohamad Affendi, a secondary student of Sekolah Menengah Sains Labuan, won the silver in a stiff competition in the female kumite category below 47kg, against her exponents. Aira also won bronze in the female cadet kata category.
Meanwhile, Muhammad Isyraf Faiz Mohd Ismifarizal, 14, from Labuan International School (LIS) missed out on gold and secured bronze in the male kumite categoryabove 70kg.
Nur Aneesa’s elder brother Mohamad Azib Aiman Mohamad Affendi, 19, a Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) student, won the bronze in the senior male kumite 60kg category.
Aswadee said it was a tough competition against the exponents, but consistency enabled the local karatekas to clinch medals. — Bernama
