Karate black belt Sai Kunthavi Senthil Kumar (11), a class VI student of the SSVM World School, Coimbatore, was recently crowned Under-12 champion in the Kata event — a sequence of karate stances practiced solo or in pairs against imaginary opponents — at the 8th Commonwealth Karate Championship staged in New Delhi on September 18-20. The championship meet drew over 1,000 participants from 12 countries. This pre-teen’s triumph is particularly noteworthy because it’s been achieved in a contact sport dominated by Japanese, Chinese and other south-east Asians for centuries. “Although I have participated in several international championships, this is the first time I have competed in one hosted by India. Nothing can compare with winning a gold medal on home turf,” she acknowledges. The older of two daughters of homemaker Radha and Senthil Kumar, who runs a logistics and trading business, Kunthavi was encouraged to sign up with the local Gi Toku Kai Karate Do India Academy to learn self-defence. At age seven within three months of training under masters Sensei Shanmugam and Muthuraj, she was selected to compete in her first Under-8 Kata event in 2011 in which she bagged a bronze. Subsequently in August 2013, Kunthavi competed and won her first national tournament in the Kata and kumite (battle with an adversary) event categories. That’s not all. She made her mark at the Japan Shotokan Karate Association’s International Karate Championship 2013 in Trichur, Kerala, by repeating the feat, and last June, was ranked fourth in individual Kata at the World Karate Federation (WKF) tournament in Umag, Croatia. Moreover, in April this year Kunthavi bagged silver at the USA Open and Junior International Cup 2015 staged in Las Vegas, and ended the season with gold in Kata (U-14) at the 7th Asian Goju Ryu Open Karate Championship held in December. “Practice of karate has boosted my confidence and increased concentration levels resulting in sharp improvement in my academic scores,” says Kunthavi, who practices this contact sport and its stances for two hours daily, supplemented with yoga. Clearly into karate now, in the long run young Kunthavi aims to balance her academic and sports ambitions. “Inspired by the late President Dr. Abdul Kalam, my dream is to become a space scientist. Meanwhile, I have my sights set on winning the WKF championships and participating in Olympics 2020, by when karate may become an Olympiad sport,” says this promising karateka. More power to your elbow! Hemalatha Raghupathi (Coimbatore)
