WATCHFULL EYES: Several karatekas at Miri Karate Centre of Excellence training under Sasaki (second left).
MIRI: Miri Karate Centre of Excellence recently invited renowned Japanese coach Master Soke Sasaki Toshiatsu to conduct an advanced KATA training for SUKMA and senior athletes here.
Sarawak Karate chief coach Master Al-Harir Muhammed revealed that Sasaki, a 9th Dan black belt holder, is one of the very senior Shotokan grandmasters who has conducted training all over the world.
Soke Sasaki is the founder of Japan Karatedo Maruyoshikai organisation (JKMO) which has branches in USA, Russia, India, England, Malaysia, Brunei and many other countries. He is now planning to establish a branch here.
“We were very glad that he was able to make it here and thankful to him for his willingness to share his wide knowledge and experiences with our athletes here,” he said.
Al- Harir added that Sasaki was also here to help coaches upgrade the techniques and skills of their athletes for highly competitive KATA events such as Unsu, Gojushiho-sho and Kanku-Dai which are normally applicable for high-level competition under the Asia Karate Federation and World Karate Federation.
“We believe that he has also helped us to prepare our athletes for the upcoming Borneo Game be held in Labuan soon,” the chief coach noted while disclosing that another upcoming tournament will be the Malaysia Inter-school Karate Championship in Kuala Lumpur from Sept 28-29.
Al-Harir also revealed, “We will be doing an intensive lookout for new and talented athletes to prepare them early for the next Sukma 2014 in Perlis and Sukma 2016 in Sarawak.”