Come October 24, nine people from India will showcase their martial art talent in the World Martial Arts Games (WMAG) in London competing with martial arts athletes from 100 nations. About 5,000 martial arts athletes of various ages and skill levels will participate in numerous martial arts like Karate, Taekwondo and kick boxing to compete for a chance to become a WMAG champion. Satish Joshi from Uttarakhand has been selected as international coach and referee and Harshita Chaudhary from Dehradun as martial arts athlete to participate in the week long games.
Representing India, a team of nine players and four coaches shall leave for England on October 21 to gather at the Egham Leisure Centre, London. The Indian contingent will be in Egham Leisure Centre from October 22 to 29. National president of National Martial Arts Committee, Narendra Singh Mor and Asian director B K Bharat selected Satish Joshi as coach to the 2019 martial arts games. The union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank greeted Joshi and gave him wishes for being selected as coach for London games.
Apart from the individual coaches, international coaches have been arranged at international coaching centre made on the site.
Notably Joshi, who is from Nainital has 26 years experience in martial arts and has represented India at competitions in various countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, Nepal, Indonesisa and others as player, coach and judge.
He was awarded with Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar national award 2019 recently in New Delhi. He is the first to be selected from the state as martial arts coach at international level.