Japan, Italy and Serbia strike for gold on day two of karate competition

Japan secured their first Olympic karate gold medal as Ryo Kiyuna was the hero for the hosts at the Nippon Budokan on Friday.

Following Thursday’s first day of Olympic karate, which featured victories for Spain, France and Bulgaria, three different countries tasted karate gold for the first time on the second day of competition.

All six gold medals have been won by different countries which illustrates how competetive the sport is at the elite level and how prominent it is worldwide.

The men’s kata competition was won by Japan’s Ryo Kiyuna who thwarted Spain’s Damian Quintero as the competition came down to those two standouts.

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

Kiyuna earned a score of 28.72 with 20.02 for his technical performance and 8.70 for his athletic performance.

Quintero scored 27.66 with 19.32 for his technical performance and 8.34 for his athletic performance.

Bronze medals went to Ali Sofuoglu of Turkey and Ariel Torres Gutierrez of USA after their polished displays.

“I didn’t come to here without being supported by a lot of people, I’m full of gratitude,” said gold medalist Kiyuna, who on the podium held a picture of his mother who died two years ago.

“After the win, I wanted to tell my late mother that I kept a promise getting the win at the Olympics.

“In the final stage, I came up to my mind that I was practicing with my teammate, so I was reassured and could perform as it is.”

The kumite competition was also held with the men’s 75kg and women’s 61kg champions crowned in Tokyo.

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.

Italy’s Luigi Busa defeated Azerbaijan ace Rafael Aghayev by the smallest possible margin of a yuko score in a nervy final.

Bronze medals went to Ukraine’s Stanislav Horuna and Karoly Gabor Harspataki of Hungary.

The Hungarian, who lost his semifinal to Aghayev, said: “Now, I feel very uncomfortable, because I think the first point, was not a scoring point of the takedown because it was too long time.

“After that, I was trying to make a point, score a point to change for the result, but that was the match, so 7-0 I lost.

“I’m very sorry about that for every people in Hungary who watch that, but I won third place, so I’m very happy.”

The women’s 61kg title went to Serbia after Jovana Prekovic and China’s Xiaoyan Yin fought to a stalemate before the judges ruled in favor of the former.

Bronze medals were claimed by Turkey’s Merve Coban and Egypt’s Giana Lofty.

Silver medalist Xiaoyan said: “Every match is very important, especially the final match.

“I was just too careful in the final and didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“I should have been more pro-active and fought with initiative against my opponent.”

The karate competition comes to a conclusion on Saturday with the women’s +61kg kumite event and the men’s +75kg kumite event.

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