The Premier League has returned to Paris. On January 26-28, 376 karatekas from 61 countries performed at the first stage of the series.
Changes have been made to the tournament regulations.Its importance has also increased in light of World Cup qualifying. Therefore, the competition turned out to be exciting and provided many exciting fights. Including with the participation of athletes using Budo-Nord equipment.
The Premier League returned to the French capital after a three-year break, bringing together a strong lineup of participants. It featured 11 Grand Winners and eight reigning World Champions. In addition, before the start of the season, the World Karate Federation (WKF) announced innovations associated with the new season of the Premier League. In this sense, the importance of the Paris tournament can hardly be overestimated, and it fully justified itself.
If we talk about the results, the tournament turned out well for Tural Agalarzade (67 kg). The karateka of the Azerbaijani national team performed in a shortened subgroup: there were not four, but three participants. First, the winner of the European Games defeated Shih Cheng-Chung from Taiwan with a score of 4:1, and then defeated the Englishman Wilson Joby – 4:1. In the quarterfinals, Aghalarzadeh lost to Oubaya Said (0:2), but since the Moroccan subsequently made it to the final, the Boudo-Nord karateka had a chance for bronze. But in the medal match, Tural lost to Jordanian Gheit Afif (2:6), taking fifth place.
Haag Ricky also had a good tournament. The Swedish athlete in the subgroup first defeated the Austrian Pokorny Stefan (5:1), and then defeated Azhikanov Nurkhannat. The fight with an opponent from Kazakhstan ended in a draw, but Hantei ended up in favor of Haag. Then the Haag Ricky had a productive match with Janovcik Maros from Slovakia. Having won with a score of 9:8, he advanced to the quarterfinals. At this stage, he lost to the Turk Yurur Omer Faruk – 0:2. Subsequently, the opponent lost in the semi-finals and closed Haag’s path to the fight for bronze.
Vasylenko Olha (50 kg) competed in women’s kumite in Paris. In her quartet, the Ukrainian took last place, losing in turn to Sgardelli Aime from Croatia (1:4), German Hubrich Schar (1:2) and representative of England Cosgrove Niamh (0:4).
Also last in her group was Rosenlind Matilda (55 kg) from Sweden. In three meetings she failed to score a single point and lost with the same result 0:4 to Mancinelli Syria (ITA), Bitsch Mia (GER) and Yerdaulet Assemgul (KAZ).
Another Swedish karateka Nilsson Anna-Johanna (61 kg) performed better. She started with a difficult victory over Aly Noursin from Egypt (1:1), then lost to the Ecuadorian athlete Factos Jacquelin (1:5), and then defeated Angelucci Giulia from Italy – 2:5. This allowed the athlete of the Budo-Nord team to finish her performance in second place in the group.
The Japanese team won the most awards in Paris, including three golds. The tournament set the tone for the entire season and should become even more interesting.
The second of four stages of the Premier League this season will take place on March 15-17 in the Turkish resort city of Antalya.
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