The Saudi national karate team led by Olympic silver medalist Tarek Hamdi on Monday launched a training camp for the upcoming third round of the 2021 Karate 1-Premier League to be held in Cairo on Sept. 1-5.
The event was initially scheduled to take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but was changed to the Egyptian capital in late June.
Hamdi, who received a hero’s welcome on his return to Saudi Arabia from Japan after claiming second place in the men’s karate kumite +75kg category, was joined by 15 other members of the squad for the week-long camp in Riyadh.
The athletes chosen by Mounir Afkir, coach of Saudi national team, are: Imad Al-Maliki, Fahad Al-Khathami, Sultan Al-Zahrani, Raef Turkistani, Mohammed Al-Maliki, Badr Al-Otaibi, Faraj Al-Nashiri, Khaled Al-Sheikhi, Sanad Sofiani, Ali Barnawi, Rayan Jabali, Faisal Al-Otaibi, Misfer Asmari, Mansour Mubarak, Azzam Al-Mutairi and Hamdi.
The athletes will take part in two sessions each day, one in the morning and the other in the evening, and will engage in direct combat with each other.
At the end of the week, Afkir and his technical staff will whittle down the list to the eight players who will travel to Cairo.
