by PAPUA New Guinea Karate-Do Federation (PNGKF) is expected to announce its national squad later this week following a three-day seminar and national competition over the weekend.
PNGKF vice-president Roy Stanley said a total of five provinces represented by several clubs competed in the nation’s capital for spots in the national team.
We had numerous clubs with their karate styles that came and competed under five provinces from NCD, Morobe, New Ireland, Central and Northern.
The significance of the event is to select a total of 32 athletes from all divisions to make the national team.
There’s no cut-down after the selection, this will be the final list that will be sent to the PNG Olympic Committee for justification.Roy Stanley, PNG Karate-do Federation Vice-President
This is will be the team to present PNG in karate at the 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands.
Stanley said the aim was to identify young talent from each of the participating clubs and prepare them for the games.
Our selection goes within the youth range as we are looking at a firebrand to prepare for the 2023 Pacific Games, so far from this tournament each club displayed four different Karate Kata style both in traditional display and bouts.
Stanley
Each clubs from the provinces displayed the Shito-ryu, Goju-ryu, Shotokan-ryu and the Wado-ryu which are significant fighting styles in karate, they competed in different weight categories ranging from 55kg to the open division including the individual and team katas.
Stanley said they hoped to pick a team based on merit and potential who could be medal contenders at the upcoming 2023 Pacific Games in Solomon Islands that starts in November.
