The three days long All India Karate-Do championship 2018 concluded on Sunday amidst much fanfare at Patanjali Yogpeeth here. Over 850 players from 29 states of India participated in the event. With the cultural events interspersed between the matches, the event gave a touch of completeness balancing Indian Yoga and Chinese martial arts.
Presiding as the chief guest at the event, yoga guru Swami Ramdev said that yoga and sports played an important role in one’s life. A sports’ enthusiast learns to lead the life in a balanced way and no matter how hard the times come in his life, he would never go into depression. He said that gaming was a stress busting activity like yog practicing which the cortisol and other stress related hormones were balanced. He exhorted people to practice these activities and be disease free. “Since healthy people alone can make a healthy nation, I extol every citizen of the country to become involved in some kind of sports activity.”
Lauding the stamina of the players who showed different moves and bouts, Ramdev said that with the help of breathing exercises like pranayama, the players could increase the stamina.
Karate was becoming a famous report these days amongst the people of the country which is good technique for self defense. The MP from Haridwar, Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’ that one could witness a mini-India in Patanjali Yogpeeth, with players from different economic and cultural backgrounds gathered at one place along with their coaches. He said it was a proud moment for the state to host this kind of national championship.
Notably 150 referees and judges who had rendered their services at national and international levels were part of the three day long event. Three talented players from the state of Uttarakhand -- Pragya Joshi, Arti Saini and Nilesh Joshi were given recognition awards by the federation office bearers and the chief guest Swami Ramdev.
The national vice president of the All India Karate-Do Federation, Satish Joshi and general secretary of Uttarakhand Sports Karate Association, Vinay Joshi felicitated the yog guru with memento and shawl. The second day witnessed Vidhan Sabha speaker Premchand Agarwal initiate the session. Agarwal announced cash prizes for those players of Uttarakhand who won gold and silver medals. The legislator from Ranipur Adesh Chauhan also expressed his views on the occasion.
The efforts of the vice president of All India Karate-Do Federation, Satish Joshi were lauded by the patron of the All India Karate Do federation RK Singh for hosting the event successfully. Satish had participated as Indian team coach in 5th Asian Games Turkmenistan held in the year 2017.
The General Secretary of Patanjali Yogpeeth, Acharya Balkrishna awarded the winning players of the championship on Sunday.