Spanish men, women sweep karate gold medals

DOHA: In the first major karate tournament held on sand, Spain’s karatekas dominated the rest of the field to win gold in both the men’s and women’s Karate Kata Individual finals after three gruelling rounds of competition on Sunday.

World No 1 Sandra Sanchez (ESP) continued her tournament dominance by defeating up and comer Fatemeh Sadeghi (IRI) in the final with a powerful suparinpei 26.28 to 24.60. On the men’s side, world No 2 Damian Quintero’s (ESP) anan dai easily outmatched Chinese Taipei’s Yi Wang with a score of 26.40 to 24.94 to claim gold.

Both Spaniards proceeded through the earlier rounds of the day with little difficulty, topping each elimination round as the number of karatekas dwindled, until they were alone atop the podium, as a yellow moon rose over the water.

In the women’s bronze medal matches, reigning Pan American champion Maria Dimitrova (DOM) defeated Sakura Kokumai (USA) after numerous technical delays with the scoreboard. Mo Lau of Hong Kong collected the second bronze with a victory over Jessica Kwong (USA) 25.54 to 24.76.

Venezuela’s Antonio Diaz added a World Beach Games bronze to his already sizeable collection of medals with a victory over Salman Almosawi (KUW) 25.62 to 24.54, while Gakuji Tozaki (USA) prevailed over Indonesia’s Ahmad Zaresta.

In the day’s early action, group B in the men’s second round proved highly competitive, with 12th-ranked American Ariel Torres and former world silver medallist Vu Dack (FRA) both eliminated in a closely-contested session. In the ensuing ranking round, current world No 3 Ali Sofuoglu (TUR) was odd man out for the medals.

Tozaki posted an impressive 25.40 for his anan dai in group B’s second round, but it was Wang, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist, who followed up in the ranking round with a 25.02 to nab a spot in the final.

In the women’s ranking round, Terryana D’Onofrio (ITA) and Turkey’s Dilara Eltemur, the current world No 8, were eliminated from medal contention, while it was the surprising Iranian Sadeghi’s performance of a suparinpei and its score of 24.66 that propelled her into the final.

Now all eyes turn to the inclusion – finally – of the sport into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the qualifying cycle that will, thankfully, take place back on tatami.