Iranian karate team won 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals on Friday, the third day of the 10th World Karate Federation (WKF) Junior, Cadet and U-21 Championships, underway in Tenerife, Spain.
Iranian karateka Barbod Sedaqat in the category of Junior Kumite Male -76 kg defeated Nabil Ech-Chaabi from Morocco in the final match and received Iran’s first medal.
He earlier overpowered opponents from Georgia, Kosovo, Bolivia and Egypt to advance to the semifinal match where he beat the Russian to reach the final, IRNA reported.
In +76 kg category, Majid Nikuhemmat went pass the Canadian in his first match and overpowered a Greek rival in the second fight. After defeating the Russian in the third match, he won over the challenger from Egypt.
In the semifinal stage, Nikuhemmat brought down a Spanish opponent and advanced to the final match where he lost to his Japanese rival Rikito Shimada and had to be content with a silver medal.
First Women’s Medal
In the female junior kata team, Iran’s squad including Yeganeh Shahpari, Golnaz Shahzeidi and Erfaneh Massah defeated rivals from Italy, Croatia and Greece and advanced to the semifinals where the Iranian team was overpowered by Egypt.
In the third place play-off, they defeated Serbia on Friday and received a bronze medal. It was the first ever medal in the world championships for the Iranian female karatekas.
The Iranian squad has so far bagged six medals including one gold, one silver and four bronze.
In the rankings table, Iran is sixth while the first place is jointly held by Egypt and Japan. Teams from Turkey, Spain and Kazakhstan stand in third to fifth positions.
Competitors in the junior kumite categories are fighters who will fight to qualify for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires.
The tournament is the benchmark event for the youngest karatekas, being the way for the Senior Championships, and the long-awaited Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
The event opened on Wednesday with 1,710 karatekas from 109 countries and will continue until Sunday.
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