The Open International Karate Championship for Madinah Governor Prince Faisal bin Salman Cup was launched Sunday at the sports hall of Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz Sports City.

Eight countries are seeing action in the championship namely Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Sudan, Pakistan, Iran, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, the host country. A number of countries said they would be unable to attend: Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunis, Algeria and Bahrain.

Karatekas in various weight categories will participate in the group and individual events. To officiate the championship are 25 international referees with Muhammad Al Jwaisan as the officials' supervisor.

Ibrahim Al-Qannas, chairman of West Asia Union and chief of Saudi Karate Union, welcomed the visiting Arab and Islamic delegations. He wished them a nice stay in the Kingdom.

“We have taken all the necessary preparations to make this championship a success,” Al-Qannas said. “It is our hope that the Saudi players will achieve impressive results in the leadup to the next Western Asia Championship, to be held in Amman, Jordan in early September, and the World Cup, to be held in Spain next November.”

Al Qannas said that the Saudi players will participate with five teams of three players each.

Mu’afa Jouman, manager of the Saudi team, expressed his hope that the Saudi players will achieve very good results. “Our Saudi team players are a mix of expert and professional players, and junior players,” he said.

Abd Al-Fattah An Najjar, the Saudi team coach, said that the players attended a camp for one month in Riyadh for training. Another camp was held a few days prior to this championship, to ensure that the players are in good physical and technical condition.

The Saudi team will be represented by 15 players in the championship. The team leader said that he is comfortable with the readiness of the players to achieve good results in the matches. “We hope that there will be a large audience, and we promise to give you outstanding results that will make you take pride in us,” he said.

“Although there are world class players in the Egyptian and Turkish teams, we still believe that our Saudi team has very professional players and they can make a difference any time,” he said. “They did so in the past. And they will do it now.”