MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ historic hosting of the Karate One Youth League Manila aims to popularize the sport and develop young local talents in the country.
Karate Pilipinas Federation, Inc. president Richard Lim emphasized that hosting this prestigious tournament is an investment in the country's youth, offering local talent invaluable exposure to 1,000 international karatekas representing 59 nations.
“We hosted this youth league to give opportunities for our youth. Basically, we need the turnover. Of course, we have a good national team, but anytime soon they will be retiring, so we have to promote the youth,” Lim told the media on Friday night at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“One way of giving them all the opportunity is to host, because they will be playing in a different field, which is already a world standard. Of course, they’re competing here locally, but they need to compete in a higher level of competition to be pushed and challenged to work harder,” he added.
Pleased with the successful turnout, the World Karate Federation president, Antonio Espinosa, announced that the federation looks forward to Manila hosting the event again.
“They want to come back here since they were very impressed with the stadium, especially with the Filipino hospitality. Now, I was told that it was going to be held in sometime in February next year.”
“They are going to remove the Fujairah. Manila will be the Asian leg of the World Youth League. So officially, instead of Fujairah, it will be in Manila.”
The delegates were welcomed in full Filipino style right after they stepped into the homeland.
“So far, we have been receiving praises. This is the first time we arrived in the country where we were greeted right after we hopped off the airplane. We were given flower necklaces. They were very pleased and appreciative.”
The event started on May 14 and will run until May 17.
Eduardo Berco III delivered the host country's closest run to a podium finish in the junior male Kumite Under-61kg division.
After an early loss to Ukraine, he rebounded in the repechage by defeating opponents from Scotland (7-1) and Sri Lanka (3-1) before ultimately falling 1-5 to Macau's Lao Cheok Hang in the bronze medal match.
In the same U-61kg division, Zian Alexander Sing put on a strong performance to reach the tournament semifinals. However, his impressive run was halted just shy of the finals after a hard-fought 1-3 loss to Ukraine's Sukrob Sadullayev.
