How is West Papua preparing the young ones to become professional athletes? One of the answers is the internal karate championship. The most recent one was last March 2022. It was the INKAI (Institut Karate-do Indonesia or Indonesian Karate-do Institute) Karate Internal Championship in Sorong Raya, where they discovered new athletes.
In accordance with the instructions of the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral TNI Yudo Margono, in the context of developing superior, professional, and tough human resources, Lantamal XIV Sorong held the INKAI Sesorong Raya internal karate championship. The championship was to compete for the 2022 Danlantamal XIV CUP trophy to find the best future potential for Sorong karate athletes.
This karate athlete championship collaborated with the Indonesian Karate Sports Federation West Papua, involving ten contingents, consisting of three civilian contingents and seven military contingents, with a total of 170 contingent participants.
For the championship this time, there are two classes: individual and group classes. The age categories also vary, ranging from the early age, the pre-beginners, the beginners, the juniors, and the senior cadets.
It is hoped that the karate championship this time can produce superior young talents who can be the pride of Sorong in the future. In the long run, these young talents can also be recruited as Navy soldiers, especially since they may be achieving so much more later on.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the West Papua’s INKAI said that INKAI had also contributed gold medals in the Asian Games. This can be a motivation to achieve better among their INKAI karate team since they make reliable athletes for future talents.
About INKAI
The symbol of this institute is in the form of a red and white earth circle with a black belt tied around it. There is a yellow at the base of the circle too. This symbolizes the unity of INKAI members as a family based on karate-do. The top of the earth’s sphere touches at a point on the apex of the yellow circle.
The motto of INKAI is: “to possess great integrity, strength, and humility”. After all, the greatest strength is not the value from how one demonstrates its physical strength to another—just to exercise authority and domination. The greatest strength lies within self-control and one’s ability to remain down to earth. Even when the fight is most necessary, one can and should only do so in the name of self-defense and protecting the ones in need.
Some of the Already Successful Karate Athletes from West Papua
In October 2021, two sisters and also karate athletes from West Papua, Nadine Rizqi Athira and Naila Rizqi Athalla, won silver medals for the Papua contingent. They participated in the 20th National Sports Week (or Pekan Olahraga Nasional or PON XX), which was held in GOR Politeknik Penerbangan Kayu Batu, Jayapura.
It was their first time participating in a national-scale event for sports. They were defeated by another team of female athletes from South Sulawesi, Nur Rizka Fauziah, Magfirah Syamsul, and Nadya Baharuddin. The South Sulawesi team won gold medals, while the West Papua contingent – the sisters Nadine and Naila, alongside their peers in the team Rasta, had to be happy enough with silver medals.
The sisters’ mother, Wattin Rusli Djatmiko, admitted that the sisters had worked the struggle during PON XX while they were still grieving the loss of their father, Ontos Djatmiko. With the help and support from many people, including their coach, Omita Olga Ompi, Nadine and Naila had managed to do their best during PON XX.
Omita Olga Ompi is a former karate athlete in international competitions back in the 1990s. Omita won a silver medal in the Asian Games 1994 and another one in the Asian Games 1998 in Bangkok. She had such high praises for the young athletes from their grueling training down to the competition.
“I have such high respect for them, knowing that at such a young age, they have high spirits to do their best,” Omita stated. “Even when Nadine still hadn’t fully recovered from her shoulder injury, the two could still perform their best in the arena that day. Since this is their debut, it is already a remarkable achievement that they finished with silver medals. They still have more to come.”
Only a year apart, Nadine (19) and Naila (18) were lucky to have received the privilege to be part of the West Papua contingent. Before defending the Land of The Birds of Paradise, Nadine, the university student, and Naila, who had just graduated from high school, had defended Depok, West Java. They had brought PP INKAI to victory for the women’s team at the National Champion for Karate-do in Jakarta in 2019.
This is why it is very important for INKAI to start training potential young talents in karate-do. Who knows? In the future, new potential athletes from West Papua will be just like Nadine and Naila … or even much better.
