Travelling on credit, private Malaysian karate team wins big in France

 

Nivashini Sivaraman won the first ever gold medal in a world karate meet in the Kata category for the 15-17 age group in the French International Open.

PETALING JAYA: A private Malaysian karate team, which had travelled on credit to Paris with the help of a local travel agency, scored a huge success in the French Karate International Open, including the country’s first gold medal in a global meet, on Sunday.

The nine-member team, which faced discrimination when trying to raise funds for the meet in Lyon, came back with at least a medal each in the tournament which saw 12 countries taking part besides the home team, including India, Japan, Ukraine, Romania and Italy.

The group was led by the president of the International Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Sei-bu-kan Karate Do Association of Malaysia (IOSSKAM), Minalochuni Pathmanathan, who described the achievement as “exhilarating”. The association is registered with the youth and sports ministry.

“The icing on the cake was the gold medal won by 17-year-old Nivashini Sivaraman in the Kata category for the 15-17 age group. I believe this is the first ever gold medal in a world karate championship for Malaysia,” she told FMT.

Minalochuni, 26, attributed the success to the high team spirit and discipline shown by the members who were “hell bent” on succeeding after some organisations whom they approached for funding had “humiliated” them.

Minalochuni Pathmanathan (front centre) and A Yasodharan (left front) posing with the team after the event.

“They said they did not have the confidence as the team was too young and also being managed by a woman. We only managed to raise about RM18,000 when we needed four times the amount. The team has proven them wrong,” she said.

She thanked MIC for the RM10,000 donation and other individuals for their contributions.

Team manager A Yasodharan thanked a local travel agency for paying in advance for the flight to France, saying it showed they had faith in the youngsters. He added that local airlines turned them down saying they were facing hard times.

“In some instances, we were discriminated against and humiliated. And we were also left with empty promises with funds never being delivered. We had to use personal funds and loans to ensure the team participated in France,” he told FMT.

He said the team will be returning today.

The winners of the events were:

• Nivashini Sivaraman, 17. Gold in Kata Female Junior;
• Thavanishwary Muniandy, 18. Silver in Kata Female Junior, bronze in Kumite Female Junior;
• Praveen Elancheran Dharmalingam. Silver in Kumite Junior Male, and Male 70kg and above;
• Shachiidanantha Guberan Pathmanathan, Mugeshvaran V. Ganesh, Praveen Elancheran Dharmalingam, Prakash Muhammad Arjuna. Bronze in Rotational Team Kumite Male Open; and
• Paveedra Devi V Ganesh, Nivashini Sivaraman, Thavanishwary Muniandy. Silver in Rotational Team Kumite Female Open. - FMT