Venturing off beaten track, Chennai's karate kids make the grade in US

CHENNAI: If you thought the young boys in the city, like their counterparts elsewhere, take to cricket and tennis as sports to excel, here is an exception. Two 13-year-old boys from Chennai who took karate as their sport of choice have just returned from Indianapolis in the US after bagging a silver medal each in the world championship in their age-group.Karthik Manoj and Kaushik Saikumar were invited to the 2011 World Karate Association tournament held in the last week of June. And when they returned they had more than made their parents, schools and karate instructor proud. They showed other children that there is a world beyond the popular sports disciplines to enter and excel.Karthik, a class 9 student of Don Bosco School, is the son of former state snooker champion MC Manoj. He won the second place in the 'kata' category (one of the three categories in karate which deals with imaginary fights without weapons). Kaushik, a class 8 student of Lady Andal School, bagged the silver medal in the 'kobudo' category (which uses a weapon called 'bo', a wooden stick, but without contact).Interestingly, their coach Ayyappan Mani, who runs karate schools in Kilpauk and Thiruvanmiyur, had won the third place in 2009 and the second place this year in the third category, 'kumite', which involves a direct fight without weapons, in the 18-29 age-group for advanced black belts.
"We were the only participants from India in the competition which is held once in two years," says Mani, who feels with properencouragement, Indian children could make their grade in the sport. "We had to make our own arrangements for the trip as karate is not a priority sport in the government list." In all, 27 countries participated in the tournament.Karthik and Kaushik got hooked to karate only last year but theirdedication and disciplined training helped them make good strides. Their sessions wih Mani start as early as five in the morning and end late in the evening."Their achievements are significant because they fought with older and much bigger boys from the US, Germany, Mexico and Japan," says Mani. "I have been training intensively for this tournament," says Karthik, who takes part in inter-school swimming competitions too but vows that karate is his main sport.