HARIPUR: The annual belt promotion test of Kyokushin karate practitioners was held at the Shaheen Gymnastic and Martial Arts Academy, Haripur, here the other day.

Noted karate coach Riaz Khan Shaheen, who himself is black belt, and international karate champion Syed Ahmed Shakir supervised the test.

Over 30 boys and girls were put to test their martial art skills.

As part of the belt promotion test, all the players first ran around the city covering a distance of four kilometres before displaying their fighting and self-defence skills at the academy.

According to judges, 25 of the 30 students qualified the promotion test for different belts.

Ten players, including a girl, namely Areeba Jamshed, clinched the orange belt; five players clinched the blue belt, four won green belt, three, including a girl, Salma Yaseen, obtained brown belt and three players, two of them girls, namely Khushbakht Irsa and Zebun Nisa, were awarded with yellow belts.

Speaking on this occasion, chief coach Riaz Khan Shaheen said Haripur had great talent in martial arts and the ever-increasing number of girls participating in the sport showed they had potential to bring national and international awards for the area.

He lamented that lack of government support was discouraging the budding players, who were passionate to exhibit their martial arts skills. However, Mr Shaheen said he and his team were committed to helping the youth spend their time in healthy activities rather than remaining glued to mobile phones and other useless activities.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2023