Karate team gear up for World Cup

Coimbatore: A 35-member Indian karate team will participate in the first World Karate Federation Youth Camp and World Cup starting from July 1 at Chalkida in Greece.

"The team will participate in the four-day World Cup. They will also attend one-week camp in Chennai from June 20," Muthuraj, president of Coimbatore district Karate Do Association said on Wednesday.

The team consists of five karatekas from Tamil Nadu, including three from Coimbatore.

Muthuraj rued that though the association was recognised and affiliated to the All India Karate Do Federation and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs, it was not getting proper encouragement from the Government.

"Each contestant has to spend nearly Rs 1 lakh to attend the World Cup. But no sponsors were coming forward to promote Karate," he said. -PTI

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Indians make a sound start

New Delhi: India made a resounding start to their campaign in the Singapore Open badminton tournament with the trio of Saina Nehwal, Arvind Bhat and Anup Sridhar winning their qualifying openers of the Super Series event on Wednesday.

National champion Saina opened the proceedings beating Jie Yao of Netherlands 21-19, 19-21, 21-13 in a fiercely contested match that lasted 52 minutes.

Nehwal will next take on Juan Gu of Singapore. - PTI