Tokyo2021 / Ganjzadeh, KO, and Abdelaziz Olympic champions !
Tareg Hamedi is the beautiful and sad story of the day and even of these Olympics. Beautiful because the young Saudi, 23, qualified beautifully for the final and led brilliantly (4-1). Sad because he knocked out Sajad Ganjzadeh and was declared the loser. The Olympic champion therefore the Iranian. Ryutaro Araga saves Japan’s honor in Kumite with his bronze medal.
In +61 kg, the Egyptian Feryal Abdelaziz, 23, also created a sensation by becoming Olympic champion. Olympic No.1, World No.1 and World Champion Iryna Zaretska gets the silver medal. The highlights of this surprising day.
By Ludovic Mauchien and Florian Fournier
Photos: Kphotos
Tokyo 2020 / Zaretska, Berultseva, Abdelaziz and Gong in ½ finals
For this last day of karate at the Olympics, the + 61kg opened the ball. The preliminary round show the density and the high level of this category. The -68 kg world champion, Irina Zaretska, qualified for the ½ finals and appeared very fit, only defeated by the Kazakh Berultseva, who accompanies her in ½ finals. They will fight the Egyptian Abdelaziz and the Chinese Gong who extricated themselves from a group with a knife drawn.
By Florian Fournier
Tokyo2021 : Busa, Prekovic and Kiyuna Olympic champions !
And it is Luigi Busa who had the last word ! This has been going on for over 10 years. Rafael Aghayev led the way but, by winning 1-0 in the final against the Azerbaijani, the Italian made history. He is THE Olympic champion. Stanislav Horuna finishes 3rd.
In -61 kg, the two best also met in the final. Serbian world champion, Jovana Prekovic, wins the Gold on the referees’s decision over China’s Xiaoyan Yin (0-0, 3-2 at the flags).
In kata, unsurprisingly and logically, as he dominates his subject, the three-time Japanese world champion, Ryo Kiyuna, became Olympic champion.
By Ludovic Mauchien and Florian Fournier
Photo : Kphotos
Tokyo2021 / Steven Da Costa : « I wanted to show my real face »
The night was very short for Steven Da Costa, gold medalist yesterday at the Tokyo Olympics (-67 kg). What does an Olympic champion’s awakening look like ? How did he manage his competition ? Did he scare himself ? To what is due his metamorphosis between morning and evening ? How did he live his day ? Did he have fun ? The “little prince” of Karate looks back on his extraordinary performance and tells us why and how he became the 1st Olympic champion in history.
By Ludovic Mauchien
Photo: Kphotos
Tokyo2021 / -75 kg: Aghayev vs Harspataki, Busa vs Horuna in the ½ final
They are there ! The 3 best fighters on the planet meet in the ½ final of the Olympic Games. The only one missing is Nishimura, beaten at the last second by a Mawashi from Hungarian Harspataki, Olympic No.10, the surprise of these ½ finals. The Samurai Aghayev is in good shape. Dodging like in the good old days, he is in place ! He will fight the Hungarian in the ½ final, after dominating his 16-year-old younger brother, Azhikanov, and losing against Busa (1-3), hence his 2nd place in the pool. For his part, Ukrainian Stanislav Horuna did the job, no more, no less, but calm and in control, dominating Scott and Nishimura 2-1. He will face Busa, who scared himself by losing to Azhikanov, in the ½ final. Hot times !
By Ludovic Mauchien
Photo : Kphotos
Tokyo 2021/ -61 kg : Yin, Prekovic, Coban and Lotfy in final
No surprise in the -61 kg category. All the main gold contenders are qualified for the ½ finals. World No.1 Yin won all her fights and sent a strong message to the other. In Pool B, World champion Petkovic and Egypt’s Lotfy dominated their subject before facing each other in a final fight for 1st place of the group. In the end, Petkovic won thanks to the Senshu. The last qualified for the ½ finals is the Turkish Coban. She will be opposed to Prekovic. A tought task… Today, Prekovic is (again) on fire !
By Florian Fournier
Photos : Kphotos
