After the warm-up they experienced at the beginning of the year at the Samurai Cup 2023 in Houston, the athletes of the karate senior team have a great sparring that allows them to represent the blue and white once again at the Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023.
It’s the tenth El Salvador Cup, celebrated yesterday, which had the participation of over 400 athletes from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the United States, and Mexico.
There were 84 categories in the Cup, in the katas, combat, weapons (kobudo), among others.
According to Williams Serrano, head coach of the Salvadoran Karate Federation (SKF), the results of the events prior to the team selection for the San Salvador 2023 Games, are considered for the formation of the national team.
In that sense, the coach remarked that they already have a few categories defined; but those which aren’t yet defined are still in progress, which is why they need to keep up or improve their level. “Nobody’s spot is ensured until they send the definitive list”.
In that regard, Serrano mentioned karatekas Pedro Recinos, René Herrera, Omar Morales, Miguel Barrera, José Araujo, Carlos Galán, René Sosa, Leonardo Sibrián, Jorge Merino, Stanley Tepas, and Mario López; as well as Gabriela Izaguirre, Sofía Orantes, Helen Galán, Abigail López, Estefany Izaguirre, Fátima Rivas, Karen Linares, María José Alvarado, and Andrea Izaguirre, who are looking for a spot in the senior team.
He emphasized that all of them are being taken into consideration for the final list, which will include the best six male athletes, and six female athletes, and who will be seeing action in five combat categories (m & f), and two in katas with one per gender.
Focused on the San Salvador 2023 Games and to continue strengthening the athletes’ preparation, Oswalds Mata, president of the SKF, confirmed that he will travel with a group of youth and senior athletes on Thursday to participate in the Central American Championship, held in Costa Rica from February 7th to February 12th. Afterward, they will participate in the qualifiers for the regional event, which will take place from February 26th to March 5th in Mexico, “other countries need to qualify to participate, but it will be an important warm-up for us”, he clarified.
.