Malaysian karate exponents grab a bronze in Holland

Smiles all round: (from right) Emmanuel Leong, Hoe Thomson and Ivan Oh displaying their medals after winning a bronze at the WKF Karate 1 Premier League in Rotterdam, Holland, on Monday.

PETALING JAYA: The men’s team kata trio of Ivan Oh, Hoe Thomson and Emmanuel Leong fought their way to a bronze for Malaysia in the WKF Karate 1 Premier League in Holland.

Ivan, Hoe and Emmanuel earned a 5-0 win over the Czech Republic in the bronze-medal bout in the second leg in Rotterdam on Monday to maintain Malaysia’s good record in the prestigious series.

Malaysia beat Croatia 3-2 and Spain 5-0 in the earlier rounds, but went down 2-3 to South-East Asian rivals Indonesia in the semi-finals.

Indonesia settled for the silver after losing 0-5 to Morocco in the final.

Malaysia Karate Federation (MKF) secretary Vincent Chen blamed the Malaysians’ loss to their earlier exertions in the individual kata.

“Indonesia focused solely on the team kata while our exponents had to compete in the individual kata on the same day. Our exponents only had a short rest before competing in the semi-finals,” said Vincent.

In the men’s kumite below 60kg, 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Senthil Kumaran came close to reaching the medal rounds for the second time in a row when he reached the last eight. He, however, lost 1-4 to Morocco’s Ameknassi Abdessalam in the battle for the semi-final slot.

Senthil delivered a silver when Paris, France, hosted the opening leg of the series last month.

Lim Chee Wei, the 2014 Asiad gold medallist, also bowed out in the quarter-finals of the men’s individual kata. He went down 1-4 to Italian Alessandro Iodice.

But Shree Sharmini Segaran and Syakilla Salni Jefry Krisnan – the two women exponents under the elite-only Podium Programme – failed to impress.

Syakilla, the 2014 Asiad gold medallist, lost on countback to France’s Bel-Lahsen Ismahan in the last 32 of the women’s kumite below 55kg.

Sharmini fared even worse, exiting in the first round of the women’s kumite below 50kg after a 0-1 loss to Lucia Kovacikova of Slovakia.

“Our top kumite exponents fell short of expectations this time. But I’m confident they will bounce back in Dubai (the third leg) at the end of this month,” said Vincent.