Karatekas Take 7 Medals in Asian Championship

Senior karatekas from Iran won seven medals including three gold, one silver and three bronze in kata and kumite categories at the 15th Asian Karate Federation Senior Championship in Amman, Jordan, on Saturday.

According to results posted on the Asian Karate Federation website, Majid Hassannia and Saleh Abazari in men’s division and Hamideh Abbasali in women’s category won gold in  kumite style.

Despite a fractured hand, Hassannia humbled Saud Albasher from Saudi Arabia 6-2 in the final to take gold in the -55kg class and raised his medal counts in the current year to two gold and one silver.

Surprise package Abazari in +84kg faced Japanese Hideyoshi Kagawa for gold. With a well-earned esteem, the Iranian stormed on the mat and hammered the Japanese 8-0 in a flawless victory and won gold.

Abazari edged Thai Teerawat Kangtong 3-1 in the first match. Doubling his points compared to the Qatari karateka Khalid Hassanein, the Iranian beat his rival 6-3 in the quarterfinal. In the semis, Abazari defeated Indonesian Budi Kertiyasa 5-2 and secured his berth in the final where he beat a Japanese to qualify for gold. Abazari has the 43rd place in the World Karate Federation ranking while Kagawa is 24th.

 Most Decorated Woman

The most decorated woman in the history of Iran women’s karate Hamideh Abbasali bagged the precious gold medal for her team at the continental games in the +68kg class.

In no mood for giving a point to her rivals, Hamideh started the tournament beating Indonesian Dessyinta Rakawuni 3-0 in her first challenge. The vociferous Iranian hammered Preksha Mittal of India 8-0 in her second clash to secure a place in the semis.

Abbasali defeated Ayumi Uekusa of powerhouse Japan winning a ticket for the final run. Yet again, she did not give a point away beating the Taiwanese Tzu-Hsuan Wen 8-0 in the final to win gold.

More than ten gold, silver and bronze medals in official events such as world championships, Asian championships and Karate League 1 games are among Abbasali’s trophies. She is eighth in the World Karate Federation ranking.

 Silver, Bronze Winners

In the -75kg, Iran’s Ali-Asghar Asiabari started strong as he defeated Wai Lee of Hong Kong 6-1 in the first game while in the second Chinese Fali Li and Asiabari fought tooth and nail. The Iranian won 2-1.

He then overpowered Saudi Raef Akturkistani 8-5 to get his final ticket. In the finals, it was his rival Basher Alnajjar benefiting from home crowd to beat Asiabari 6-4 and leave the Iranian with silver.

The female kata team defeated Sri Lanka first but lost the second match to Malaysia. Fortunately, the Malaysians went up to the finals and Iran regained hopes to win bronze in repechage games. The Iranian women defeated India 5-0 and bagged the bronze medal.

In the women’s individual kumite -61kg, Shima Alsa’adi won her first match against Sri Lankan Samanmali 8-0 and lost the second 11-2 to Nguyedn Thi Ngoan from Vietnam and went to repechages to test her luck for bronze.

Shima then hammered Arm Sukkiaw of Thailand 5-0 and finally overpowered Uzbek Barno Mirzaeva 8-3 to win bronze.

Also Mehdi Khodabakhshi in the male -84kg individual kumite parted with gold and silver after losing his second game 3-0 to Ryutaro Agata from Japan but tested his mettle in repechages and won bronze.

The overall performance of both male and female players put Iran second on the medal table after Japan. Jordan was third with 3 medals.

Amman hosted the 15th Asian Championship July 8-15.