Bihar's Uppal gears up for international karate contest

Bihar's Patna Central School student Amrit Lekh Uppal, who has already earned a name and place for himself in karate at the national and world level championship fights, is now headed to participate in the Commonwealth Karate Championship to be held at Johannesberg, South Africa, in October this year.

He, however, would also require monetary support. Bihar Karate Black Belt treasurer Nisha Pal and vice-president Kajal Madhu have appealed to both CM Nitish Kumar and sports minister Renu Devi to provide support to meet the cost of journey to Johannesberg and back.

Whether the state government would respond to their call as morale boosting exercise is a moot point, it is wished for since the government has been promoting sports activities and also rewarding sportspersons of repute who have excelled even nationally.

At present, all attention of junior Uppal is focused on the Commonwealth Championship at Johannesberg, which would be held from October 15 and 17. The state's karate coach Guatam Kumar has been giving him training to further hone his skill in preparation for the new karate international contest in his career.

Earlier, in July this year, he performed well in Greece, and also won gold and silver medals at the national championship held in Kolkata. All India Karate Do Federation president R Tyagarajan has selected junior Uppal for the Commonwealth Championship. For this, the national karate coach Premjit Sen congratulated him on telephone from Kolkata. Congratulation also flowed from All India Seishinkai Shito-Ryu Karate Do Federation general secretary Malika Sen. Well wishers, however, have been hoping that he is on right track to also excel at Johannesberg.link