Muscat – Nine karate students of Bodhi Life Skills were awarded black belts for 2022 at a ceremony held at Al Falaj Hotel recently.

Mamuro Kanno, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Japan in Muscat, was the chief guest, while Otsu Yuka, Second Secretary, was guest of honour at the event.

On the occasion, Renshi G Kumar, founder of Bodhi Life Skills, said, “I have been teaching karate in Oman since 2007. Karate not only makes the body strong but also the mind.”

According to Kumar, black belt training involves a 30km run, 2km duck walk, 2,500 sets of exercises, and performing 42 katas, among others. “The nine students have attained self-control, patience, courage and humbleness. Over the years, many tournaments have been conducted in Oman in which our teams won four gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze medals.”

He informed that the black belt recipients have been practising karate for a minimum of seven years. The nine karatekas are Rashmi Singh, Aadityanarayan Anoop, Taanush Emmanuel Abraham, Tessa Manoj, Kalyani Sanjeev, Shreya Sudheesh Nair, Hussair Subair, Syed Uzair Ahmed and Richa Sam.

During the event, Kumar also demonstrated his control over mind and body by letting a vehicle drive over his bare hands. His students also demonstrated skills, including breaking tiles with elbows, head and knuckles, breaking burning tiles with kicks and punches, and tiles broken on abdomen of a student.

The function was presided over by Abdullah Saleh, owner of Bodhi Life Skills.