Karate Pilipinas Sports Federation Inc. president Ricky Lim is itching to get the national team back in actual physical training, particularly the country’s Olympic hopefuls, as soon the sport gets the go-signal from national government authorities.

“The federation will spend for our athletes to undergo rapid tests (for the COVID-19 virus) before they can resume training,” Lim said. “I’m glad that majority of them are asking us, ‘When do we get back?’ ”

Lim said the team has already submitted its sport’s protocols to the Philippine Sports Commission for endorsement to the Inter-Agency Task Force overseeing the virus crisis, stressing that these guidelines were for training and not competition.

“Once our measures are approved, we want to train with our national athletes outdoors first,” Lim said. “One of our supporters is offering the rooftop of his building where we can train again once we get government approval.”

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Lim acknowledged that it has been hard on the national karatekas since the country went on lockdown in mid-March, prompting some of them who were undergoing intensive training in Istanbul, Turkey to return to Manila before the nationwide quarantine took effect.

Left behind in Turkey was Okay Arpa, the Turkish head coach of the national team, who has been conducting online training sessions with the athletes since the lockdown, he said.

Lim bared that the federation began conducting free training sessions via Zoom conferencing two weeks ago featuring top caliber international karatekas to inspire and boost national team morale while they were barred from public training.

Last Friday, he said, the webinar was conducted by Turkish Olympic qualifiers Ali Sofuoglu and Ugur Aktas in kata and kumite (sparring), respectively, with athletes from 12 countries taking part in the sessions that was graced online by PSC commissioner Charley Maxey.

Aktas ruled the men’s 84-kg division in kumite while Sofuoglu bagged a silver medal in men’s kata of the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus.

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Jaimie Lim, a kumite gold medalist in the women’s 61-kilogram division of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, assisted in the kumite session while Norman Montalvo, who took a silver medal in the men’s 55-kg. class in the SEA Games, led in the conditioning exercise, the federation chief recalled.

In hindsight, Ricky Lim said the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics could prove to be a blessing in disguise for the country’s Olympic hopefuls.

“A lot of top karatekas all over the world came out of retirement because of the Olympics,” noted Lim. “But with the postponement, they will be a year older and likely slower. Our Olympic aspirants are still young and will be stronger and faster a year from now.”

Although a Japanese ethnic combat sport, karate will be making its Olympic debut in Tokyo, luring a lot of retired karatekas in returning to the mat in the hope of competing in the prestigious quadrennial global sports showcase for the first time.

Among country’s Olympic aspirants are Lim, the only child of basketball great Avelino “Samboy” Lim and former PAG-IBIG fund president Atty. Darlene Berberabe, Fil-Japanese; SEA Games gold medalist JunnaTsukii; and Filipino-American Joanne Orbon, a former US national champion.

While Tsukii began her Olympic quest in seeing action in ranking tournaments organized by the World Karate Federation, Lim and Orbon, who were part of the PH training contingent in Turkey, were primed to see action in the world Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled last May in Paris.

But the competition was scrapped in the wake of the pandemic and rescheduled to June 2021 by the WKF.

The PKF president was bullish about the Olympic qualifying prospects of the karatekas, particularly after Lim and Orbon bagged gold medals the tough Ukrainian Premier League last February.

Against elite European competition, Orbon and Lim topped the women’s 61-kg. and 68-kg divisions, respectively, which are both Olympic events.

“Seeing what our athletes did in the Premier League in Ukraine where we won two golds and two bronze medals among our five players, I see us soaring to the top (of karate),” Lim said.

He disclosed that his charges are now gearing for the Asian Indoor and Martial Art Games scheduled May 21 to 30, 2021 in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand, which would be an ideal tuneup meet before the world Olympic qualifiers.

“The AIMAG is in the wish list of our karatekas since the events will be the weight divisions in the Olympics,” Lim said, hoping and praying that by that time everything will be back to the “old” normal once more.

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