Karate WKF Premier League 2019

[phelps 7,664]

Karate stars ready to take on #Karate1Dubai

 

Dubai (UAE) hosts the second stop of the 2019 Karate 1-Premier League this weekend.

 

After the successful opening event in Paris (France), the best karatekas in the world are gathering in Dubai from February 15 to 17 to continue the quest to make their Olympic dreams come true. 

 

Nearly 800 competitors from 86 countries are registered to participate at the 2019 Karate 1-Premier League Dubai.

The universality of the sport and the growing interest of Karate’s major events are once again showcased as karatekas compete for the points to improve their position in the ranking and for the glory of becoming the best Karate athletes in the world. 

 

The Karate 1-Premier League Dubai will be another clash between top favourites and the new names in the sport.

 

At the opening event in Paris, five of the current Grand Winners managed to demonstrate their superiority with impressive victories.

 

Serap Ozcelik of Turkey, Gwendoline Philippe and Steven Dacosta of France, and Ayumi Uekusa and Ryo Kiyuna of Japan used their Grand Winners status to reach the top of the podium in Paris. 

 

The list of gold medallists in #Karate1Paris was completed with a blend of established stars and upcoming new names.

 

Two-time World champion Kiyou Shimizu of Japan, former Grand Winner Anzhelika Terliuga of Ukraine, and promising karatekas Elena Quirici of Switzerland and Ken Nishimura of Japan were among the big winners in Paris.

 

Now karatekas are hoping to extend their success in Dubai.

 

The last edition of the event was highlighted by the domination of the new Grand Winners.

 

Spain’s Sandra Sanchez, Turkey’s Serap Ozcelik and Eray Samdan, Italy’s Sara Cardin, France’s Alizee Agier, Japan’s Ayumi Uekusa and Azerbaijan’s Rafael Aghayev were the Grand Winners succeeding last year in Dubai. 

 

The event is scheduled to start on Friday, February 15 at 09.00 (local time).

 

All the medal bouts will take place on Sunday, February 17 from 10:00 to 16:30 (local times).

 

The last day of competition will be available to a worldwide viewing audience LIVE on karateworld.tv

[phelps 7,664]

and here we go...

 

as usual, the first competition of the weekend is the women's Individual Kata...

 

and guess who's made the Gold Medal match?

 

yes, guys! you're all right!

 

it's Kiyou Shimizu vs Sandra Sanchez Jaime

 

and the Bronze Medal matches, of course, feature another bunch of Japanese players and Viviana Bottaro...

 

I'm just asking myself why should they take the disturb of helding the preliminary stages of this discipline? wherever you go, whoever is participating, whatever they're doing...the outcome is always the same!

[phelps 7,664]

meanwhile, the first Kumite classes are also underway...

 

and we already have 1 of them completed (for what concerns today's schedule of the main draw, of course...the medal bouts will be contested on Sunday, as always)...

 

men's Individual Kumite, -60kg class

Gold Medal match: Minami Yunosuke vs Darkhan Assadilov

Bronze Medal match #1: Angelo Crescenzo vs Kaisar Albyspay

Bronze Medal match #2: Eray Samdan vs Majid Hassannia

Edited February 15, 2019 by phelps

[Quasit 865]

2 hours ago, phelps said:

and here we go...

 

as usual, the first competition of the weekend is the women's Individual Kata...

 

and guess who's made the Gold Medal match?

 

yes, guys! you're all right!

 

it's Kiyou Shimizu vs Sandra Sanchez Jaime

 

and the Bronze Medal matches, of course, feature another bunch of Japanese players and Viviana Bottaro...

 

I'm just asking myself why should they take the disturb of helding the preliminary stages of this discipline? wherever you go, whoever is participating, whatever they're doing...the outcome is always the same!

Well, perhaps they really are just the best?

[phelps 7,664]

5 minuti fa, Quasit ha scritto:

Well, perhaps they really are just the best?

 

sure, they are...

but name another discipline (except for rhythmic gymnastics, artistic swimming and ice dancing) where in the most important competitions of the year you always (and I underline "always") have the same top 2 and the same eternal bronze medallists...

if there's no sign of anything different from time to time, there must be something wrong with this event? or not?

[phelps 7,664]

in the meantime, we have another class completed...

 

women's Individual Kumite, -50kg
Gold Medal match: Kateryna Kryva vs Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu
Bronze Medal match #1: Junna Tsukii vs Sophia Bouderbane
Bronze Medal match #2: Shara Hubrich vs Reem Ahmed Salama

Edited February 15, 2019 by phelps

[thepharoah 2,405]

2 Kazakh players are already qualified to the final today  

[phelps 7,664]

men's Individual Kumite, -67kg
Gold Medal match: Steven Dacosta vs Didar Amirali
Bronze Medal match #1: Stefan Pokorny vs Amir Mirzaei
Bronze Medal match #2: Hamoon Derafshipour vs Fahad Alkhathami

Edited February 15, 2019 by phelps

[phelps 7,664]

11 minuti fa, thepharoah ha scritto:

2 Kazakh players are already qualified to the final today  

 

yeah, they're very good in the men's lower weights...

 

meanwhile, there's an interesting round #2 match-up in the men's -75kg, with Luigi Busà facing Ali Asiabari...let's see if this time he can overcome his personal late Iranian curse...

[MHSN 3,613]

not a bad day Iran. actually almost all of our athletes made it to the medal round. but unfortunately only Bahman Askari will be in the final but he beat Aghayev finally !

 

this time we didn't have a big army. only the national team members and out of 8 kumite athletes only Sara Bahmanyar in women's 50kg failed to reach the medal matches. we will have two girls in 55kg bronze medal matches, Chalaki and Khaksar.  Chalaki had to beat Banaszczyk, Thouy and Yamada for that. already a great achievement for her !

in the men's side all of them are in medal matches, Hassannia lost disappointingly to a Kazakh guy in semifinal. at 67, both Derafshipour and Mirzaei will fight for bronze. Derafshipour losing to another Kazakh guy in semifinal was again disappointing. even though we usually had problems with Kazakhs in Asian tournaments but usually don't achieve much in World competitions. at 75, beside our finalist Askari. we will have Asiabari in bronze medal match he lost to Busa this time. Askari-Busa in the final will be interesting.

 

looking at Kata results. I think our chance is not completely zero to qualify for the Olympics. if we remove the Japanese athletes I think Iran will be in top 10 in the world in both genders. there is a slim chance for them to qualify in last chance qualifiers. but in Kumite we were hoped for a full 6 quotas.  but obviously we have to count more on our men's team. while we are getting weaker in our other "big sports" . this is important for Karate to make up for that. I hope at least Askari and Ganjzadeh qualify directly via Ranking and then we can try our chance for other weights in the last qualifier.