Kurumeh Makes Case For Karate

On hearing that Karate may not feature at the 18th National Sports Festival billed for Lagos State later this year, Head Coach of Golden Martial Art Academy, Henry Kurumeh, has appealed to the Organising Committee, OC to give the sport a chance.

In a chat with P.M.Sports yesterday, the coach said that featuring Karate at the games will make the sport more popular in the country.

“Featuring Karate as one of the sports at the games is a way of making it to be popular in the country. That’s why I’m appealing to the OC in charge of the Festival to reason along with us by featuring it at the festival,” said Kurumeh.

He continued: “The sport featured at the Garden City Games and we were all amazed at the level of development that Karate has reached in Nigeria. I think we are supposed to use this edition to improve on what we achieved in Port Harcourt as a country”.

Kurumeh noted that featuring Karate at the games will be an opportunity for the sport to bridge the gap between it and other established sports in the country.

“Karate will have another opportunity to be at par with other sports in the country if it is featured at the Lagos games. I will be happy if the stakeholders can come together and make a case for the sport so that it is featured at the games,” added Kurumeh.

The coach said that the Karatekas also need to feature in competitions like the National Sports Festival to enable them rub shoulders with their counterparts from other countries.

“The Karatekas are looking forward to taking part at the games, knowing that it will be a way of testing their ability. They want to be in great shape so, they will not let their families and country down when they go for international competitions,” Kurumeh concluded.

—Bimbo ajayi