In the qualification round, it was Ryo Kiyuna (Japan) who led with an average score of 28.33 ahead of Damian Quintero (Spain), setting the two up in a gold medal bout. Kiyuna scored 28.72 in the final, taking a comfortable victory. Behind them, Ariel Torres (United States) took bronze, whilst the man who had been in third all along, Ali Sofuoglu (Turkey) won his bronze medal matchup as well.
🥇Ryo Kiyuna 🇯🇵
🥈Damian Quintero 🇪🇸
🥉Ariel Torres 🇺🇸
🥉Ali Sofuoglu 🇹🇷
Men’s -67kg
Double world champion Darkhan Assadilov (Kazakhstan) topped Pool A with an unbeaten record, ahead of Eray Samdan (Turkey), who upset Naoto Sago (Japan) to make it there. In Pool B, Abdelrahman Al-Massatfa (Jordan) upset Steven Da Costa (France) to take the group. Da Costa beat Assadilov 5-2 in the semi and went on to defeat Samdan 5-0 in the final.
🥇Steven Da Costa 🇫🇷
🥈Eray Samdan 🇹🇷
🥉Darkhan Assadilov 🇰🇿
🥉Abdelrahman Al-Massatfa 🇯🇴
Men’s -75kg
Four karatekas won two bouts each in Pool A. Qualification came down to the pair that had drawn with each other in Gabor Harspataki (Hungary) and Stanislav Horuna (Ukraine). In Pool B, it came down to arch-rivals Luigi Busa (Italy) and Rafael Aghayev (Azerbaijan). Busa claimed the victory over Aghayev, which allowed him to top the group, despite them both winning three bouts. The two rivals won their semi-finals without conceding a point to meet in the final. Again, Busa would edge a tight contest with a 1-0 victory.
🥇Luigi Busa 🇮🇹
🥈Rafael Aghayev 🇦🇿
🥉Gabor Harspataki 🇭🇺
🥉Stanislav Horuna 🇺🇦
Men’s +75kg
It was the two favourites who went through in Pool A. Ryotaro Araga (Japan) topped the pool ahead of Ugur Aktas (Turkey). Ivan Kvesic (Croatia) was knocked out of Pool B, with Sajjad Ganjzadeh (Iran) finishing above Tareg Hamedi (Saudi Arabia). In the semi, those two progressed through to the final. In the final, Hamedi landed a counter kick on Ganjzadeh that would knock him down. A potential viral moment for the sport of karate, Hamedi was instead disqualified for excessive contact.
🥇Sajjad Ganjzadeh 🇮🇷
🥈Tareg Hamedi 🇸🇦
🥉Ryutaro Araga 🇯🇵
🥉Ugur Aktas 🇹🇷
Women’s Kata
Kiyou Shimizu (Japan) was the leader after qualification, winning her pool with an average score of 27.70. Sandra Sanchez (Spain) won the other pool ahead of Grace Lau (Hong Kong) and Sakura Kokumai (United States). Lau edged Dilara Bozan (Turkey) for bronze, despite Bozan recording a score that would have been enough for bronze in the other medal matchup. It was Viviana Bottaro (Italy) who took the other bronze. Sanchez beat Shimizu by just 0.18 in their final.
🥇Sandra Sanchez 🇪🇸
🥈Kiyou Shimizu 🇯🇵
🥉Grace Lau 🇭🇰
🥉Viviana Bottaro 🇮🇹
Women’s -55kg
Pool A was packed with world championship medalists, but it was the 2018 bronze medalists Ivet Goranova (Bulgaria) and Wen Tzu-yun (Taiwan) who qualified from the pool. There was an upset in Pool B as Miho Miyahara (Japan) was eliminated, finishing behind Anzhelika Terliuga (Ukraine) and Bettina Plank (Austria). Goranova would edge Plank 4-3 and go on to win the final 5-1.
🥇Ivet Goranova 🇧🇬
🥈Anzhelika Terliuga 🇺🇦
🥉Bettina Plank 🇦🇹
🥉Wen Tzu-yun 🇹🇼
Women’s -61kg
In Pool A, it was Yin Xiaoyan (China) who won all four of her bouts. Behind her, Merve Coban (Turkey) beat Claudymar Garces Sequera (Venezuela) into second, based on their head-to-head record. Jovana Prekovic (Serbia) took Pool B with four wins, whilst Btissam Sadini (Morocco) would no doubt have been disappointed to not take a single win. In the final, it would come down to the two unbeaten fighters. Prekovic edged Xiaoyan to take gold.
🥇Jovana Prekovic 🇷🇸
🥈Yin Xiaoyan 🇨🇳
🥉Merve Coban 🇹🇷
🥉Giana Farouk 🇪🇬
Women’s +61kg
Irina Zaretska (Azerbaijan) topped Pool A with three victories. Three fighters had two victories, but Sofya Berultseva (Kazakhstan) progressed as she also had a draw. Feryal Abdelaziz (Egypt) edged Pool B with two wins and a draw, ahead of Gong Li (China) who managed the same. Zaretska won 7-2 in her semi-final but lost 2-0 in the final to Abdelaziz.
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