Final chord in Casablanca Karate1 Premier League

The next Premier League season ended in Casablanca. The last stage brought together about 400 karatekas from 53 countries, who competed not only for medals, but also for the title of «Grand Winner». Athletes from «Budo-Nord» also performed in Morocco.

At the final stage of the Premier League, Toroshanko Andrii (-84 kg) celebrated the victory. The Ukrainian performed impressively in the group round, defeating Aktas Ugur (Turkey, 6:4), Bougrine Anouar (Belgium, 4:0) and Martina Michele (4:0, Italy). In the quarterfinals he defeated the Japanese Eto Junya. The outcome of the match was decided by one accurate strike from Toroshanko – 1:0. In the semi-finals, Badawy Youssef (Egypt, 4:1) was defeated, and in the final, the karateka won a beautiful victory over the representative of Kazakhstan, Yuldashev Daniyar – 9:1. In Casablanca, Andrii set a brilliant point.

Another Ukrainian karateka Tsymbal Kostiantyn competed in the weight category up to 84 kg. However, he failed to win the group stage, losing to Sriti Mehdi (Morocco, 0:8), Minardi Andrea (Italy, 0:6) and Timmermans Brian  (Netherlands, 0:5).

In the up to 68 kg category, Mendes Joaquim was one step away from reaching the quarterfinals. The Portuguese began with a confident victory over the Swiss Pisino Noah Tony (4:0), and then entered into a duel with Amirali Didar from Kazakhstan. Considering that the group was reduced (three participants), the meeting turned into a decisive one – the winner could continue the fight. Mendes lost by one point (0:1) and ended the tournament.

Australian Sullivan Hannah, who participated in the women’s competition, failed to open the scoring for her victories. She lost in a row to Okila Menna Shaaban (Egypt, 1:3) and Gonzalez Lavin Javiera (Chile, 2:4).

A large group of «Budo Nord» karatekas were from Sweden. In the weight category up to 75 kg, Haag Ricky, despite three defeats, showed a good level. After all, in two out of three fights I lost with a score of 0:1, losing to Azhikanov Nurkanat (KAZ) and 4. Rossi Joseph (ITA). And in the fight with Durham Mitchell (Australia), the karatekas arranged exchanges, where everyone decided that the advantage of the blow was one point in favor of the opponent – 5:6.

Swede Noori Nematollah (-60 kg) also failed to win a single victory, losing in turn to Xenos Christos-Stefanos (Greece, 1:3), Sabatino Christian (Italy, 1:3) and Haas Florian (Germany, 0:3).

Rosenlind Matilda (-55 kg) was able to gain one victory, winning the fight against Stoli Maria (Greece, 4:4). But in the remaining matches she lost to Ku Tsui-Ping (Taiwan, 1:5) and Attia Mirna (Egypt, 1:6).

Nilsson Anna-Johanna (-61 kg) also recorded one successful fight, defeating Factos Jacqueline (Ecuador, 6:1). However, she lost in battles to Fernandez Osorio Carlota (Spain, 1-4) and Radjenovic Nina (Switzerland, 1:3).

At the end of the stage, the «Grand Winner» award ceremony took place in Casablanca. The athletes who took first place in the overall standings of the Premier League were honored. This time, karatekas from Japan and Egypt won the largest number of titles – three victories each. Below are the names of the Grand Winners at the end of the season.