Antonio Oliva Seba has come calling for the first time to the city
Dr R.S. Kumar, principal of Kumaraguru of technology and Dr V.Albert Premkumar, (HoD) of physical education of KCT receiving an award(recognition) from Karate Association of India(KAI) on Friday for conducting a National Karate camp at the college
Coimbatore: Coimbatore is now playing host to a martial arts superstar and a world leader in the study and teaching of Tactics. Antonio Oliva Seba has come calling for the first time to the city and the karate expert has been floored by the delicious sambar idly and sevai of the city’s most popular eatery, Annapoorna.
As he savours the Kovai’s soft idlies, he is teaching karate kicks to students of Kumaraguru College of Technology. As a karate exponent, he usually sticks to a bland diet of bread, coffee and fruits. Food for him has been strictly sans too much salt and spice. But the sambar idly and sevai are “different”, he quips.
This is his second visit to Tamil Nadu, the first having been to Chennai in 2010 where he had visited another college for a similar karate training camp in association with a sports academy.
He loves Coimbatore, its clime and scenic landscape. Coimbatore is a “beautiful city”, a city nestled in the midst of hills. But the traffic is chaotic and irritating though, says Mr Oliva the Founding Member of the CICAC (Centre for Scientific Research on Martial Arts and Combat Sports and the author of “Formalisation of Sports Karate”, 1982; “Martial Arts Practical Encyclopedia”, 1985 and “Supreme Combat”, 2002.
He had visited Ooty, Chinnar, Chalakudy and Athrapally falls in Kerala this month when he got time off from the training sessions at the college. He says he loved the Kerala fish and looks forward to coming to the southern part of India more often. His next project would be a training camp in Italy.
On student participation in karate, especially in India, he said that there is an increase in the number of students evincing interest but they have to work on speed and being more energetic.
At the valediction of the Ultimate Karate Training camp at KCT on Friday, Bharat Sharma, General Secretary, Karate Association of India said that Indian students will prove themselves in international events and bag medals. The training camp at the college comprised three seminars, trekking and a trip into the forest . A total of 73 persons including college and school students and professionals took part in the camp from different states of India.
The seminar was conducted for the Indian Karate teams to prepare for the Asian Championship to be held in Tokyo in September and the world Karate Championships to be held in Jakarta in November.
( Source : dc )
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