Karate’s first Olympic champions crowned as the sport makes its debut in Tokyo

Karate officially joined the Olympic program on Thursday as Spain, France and Bulgaria claimed the sport’s first gold medals at the Nippon Budokan on Thursday.

The competition for the debuting martial art is taking place for three days at the iconic Budokan which is known as the home of budo, a Japanese term describing modern Japanese martial arts.

The World Karate Federation, which was founded in 1970, championed the sports cause and increased its popularity and visibility around the world to pave the way for its inclusion on the Olympic program which was announced in 2016 at the Rio Olympics.

Karate has a total of 81 competitors in Tokyo from 36 nations and on the opening day all competing karateka were chasing history and determined to live out their dreams to become the sport’s inaugural Olympic champions.

Spain won karate’s first Olympic gold medal after world champion Sandra Sanchez Jaime recorded the highest score in the kata event.

The kata event has the karateka perform a set solo routine while being judged for their form and presentation.

The world number one completed her gold medal collection as she added a Tokyo 2020 Olympic crown to her world and European titles.

Sanchez Jaime scored a total of 28.06 for her kata with a score of 19.60 for her technical performance and 8.46 for her athletic performance.

“It is crazy, I am so emotional,” said the gold medalist who will always have a chapter of her own in karate’s Olympic story which has started at Tokyo 2020.

“I am feeling so many things together. I am happy, but I want to cry.

“I think I need more time to believe that this is real. I want to see my kata and make sure it happened, because right now I can’t believe it.”

Sanchez Jaime, who turns 40 next month, is Spain’s oldest Olympic champion.

She soaked up the moment in the final against the best competitor the hosts had to offer.

“This was the perfect final, with Shimizu, in Japan, at the Budokan. This really is the best moment. It is amazing.”

Silver went to two-time world champion Japan’s Kiyou Shimizu who scored a total of 27.88. The double Asian Games champion is one of the faces of the sport in Japan but had to settle for second place on home soil as she received a score of 19.60 for her technical performance and 8.28 for her athletic performance.

Shimizu said: “I was calm in the beginning, but there were parts where I lost my breath or rushed, which is usually my weak point. It would have been better if I had been able to do that part calmly. I’m disappointed that I didn’t do as well as I had practiced.

“I got carried away and couldn’t get into my usual rhythm, and my center of gravity and standing were not as stable as usual. I would like to praise myself that I was able to put my heart and soul into my performance, which is the best I have done recently.”

The bronze medals were claimed by Sheung Grace Lau of Hong Kong and Italy’s Viviana Bottaro.

The women’s kumite -55kg event was also held on Thursday with Bulgaria’s Ivet Goranova, 21, defeating Ukraine’s Anzhelika Terliuga in the final.

Kumite is one of the three main forms of karate, alongside kata and kihon, and is the form of the sport where you face off against an opponent one-on-one and Bulgaria were first to impress in this department.

Goranova won all five of her fights including a 5-1 win in the final over her 29-year-old opponent.

Goranova’s win marks the first Olympic gold for Bulgaria since 2008.

Bronze medals went to Austria’s Bettina Plank and Tzuyun Wen of Chinese Taipei.

The men’s kumite -67kg saw France’s Steven da Costa go unbeaten as he won all seven of his fights to take gold as he topped the bill on day one.

Da Costa bested Turkey’s Eray Samdan by ippon (the maximum and match-ending score) 5-0 to become karate’s first male Olympic champion.

Kazakhstan’s Darkhan Assadilov and Jordan’s Abdel Rahman Almasatfa both claimed bronze.