The third day of the competition of the 2023 EKF Senior Karate Championships had Para-Karate categories and Team divisions taking the spotlight of the action.
The resilience and strength of will of Para-Karate athletes were the highlights of day 3 of #KarateGuadalajara. In a demonstration of tremendous abilities, the Para-Karate athletes starred in the elimination rounds of the categories at stake.
The division of Blind/Visually Impaired Female K10 will have Benedetta Belotti of Italy and Emiliya Mitinova of Azerbaijan clashing for gold. The final of the Male version of this category will have Nihat Mammadzada of Azerbaijan and Alexe Dorin of Romania fighting for the title.
In Intellectually Impaired Female K21 the title will go to either Lucia Sanchez of Spain or Olivia Kakosy of Hungary. The finalists in Intellectually Impaired Female K22 are Tijana Stamenovic of Serbia and Daniela Topic of Croatia.
As for the Male divisions, Albert Singer of Germany and Carlos Huertas Ruiz of Spain are the finalists in Intellectually Impaired Male K21 while in K22 the crown will go to Jordan Fonteney of France or Mattia Allesina of Italy.
The finals of the Wheelchair divisions will be starred by Knarik Airapetian of Ukraine and Isabel Fernandez of Spain in Female and Vicente Yanguez of Spain Eldar Ahmadov of Azerbaijan in Male.
TWO FINALS FOR SPAIN IN TEAM KATA
In addition to the two finals in Individual Kata, the host nation showed its prevalence in Kata with two more final spots.
The Spanish team qualified for the title-deciding bout in Female Team Kata after topping the pool with a score of 41.0 with “Anan Dai” Kata. The host nation will clash for gold against Italy. The Italian side dominated their pool with a score of 41.3 with “Ohan Dai” kata.
In Male Team Kata, Spain also made it to the last bout. The host nation reached the final after getting a score of 41.6 with “Chatanyara Kushanku” kata. They will meet for gold against Turkiye. The defending titleholders dominated the pool with a score of 41.7 with “Kanku Sho” kata.
POWERHOUSE NATIONS PREVAIL IN TEAM KUMITE
The category of Team Kumite saw leading nations of the sport qualifying for the fight for gold. In Male Team Kumite, the final will be Ukraine vs France.
The Ukrainian side reached the final following a 12-6 victory over Croatia. Meanwhile, the French squad made it to the last bout after eliminating Turkiye in the semi-finals 3-0.
In Female Team Kumite, the final is Germany vs Croatia. The German side defeated Finland in the semi-finals 6-1 while Croatia edged France 2-1.