The 4th tournament of the Karate1 Youth League season was held in Mexico. About 900 athletes from 60 countries took part in the competition in which athletes aged 11-20 years participated in the Liberostar Playa Paraiso conference-center of Cancun, one of the world’s famous resort areas, on August 8-11. Young talents of karate, mainly from across the ocean, fought for 46 weight classes and 184 medals in 4 age groups in 4 days.
As always, this time, among the athletes using “Budo-Nord” equipment, mainly Portuguese and one Australian karateka took part in the tournament. Their performance was very successful, one athlete won the race. There is one more person among the bronze winners.
Rafael Alves, the champion of the U21 age group, showed the highest result in the -67 kilogram weight class. R. Alves, who is 11th in the world ranking, started the fight from the second stage. After defeating his Colombian opponent Mateo Tamayo Baena with a score of 10:1, he reached the final by defeating Steven Torres with a score of 2:0 and Patricio Perez Videgaray of Mexico with a score of 4:4. In the decisive match, Rafael Alves won the gold medal by beating his compatriot Guilherme Gonçalves 4:1.
Another Portuguese athlete, Filipe Andre Pena Teixeira, missed the victory in the Cadet competition (-57 kg) only in the final. First, F. Teixeira, who defeated Ocelotl Izel Garcia Sixto 2:0, then Jamaican Valentino Rasandre Evans 6:2, and Chilean athlete Lucian Rubilar Carrera 5:0, reached the finals. The Portuguese athlete, who lost to his last opponent Paul-Willibald Hoerner (Almnaia) with a score of 0:1, won the silver medal.
Among the cadets in the 47 kg weight category, two “Budo-Nord” athletes competed in the bronze medal fights. Among them, Ema Fernandes Pineu took the third place. E. Pineu, who had 4 fights, won consecutive victories over Amy Vasquez (Chile) and Nahomi Coy Abu Dagny (Guatemala) with a score of 10:0, but then lost to Mariam Abu-Rahma (USA) with a score of 5:6 and was forced to go to the repechage fights. In the bronze medal fight, E. Pineu took the third place with a score of 6:0 against Isabella Rodriguez from Costa Rica.
Competing in the same age group and weight category, Lucy Lawrence Choi had to miss the opportunity to win the bronze award. Australian athlete Isis Matos (Portugal), who started the fight from the second round, lost by 5:10, but her opponent gave her a chance for a bronze medal and advanced to the final. She won the first consolation match against Mexico’s Anette Barrientos Catalan 1:0, but lost to American Isabella Sanchez 0:2 in the final.
American athletes showed the highest result of the Cancun Youth Karate League. High-quality medals were won by athletes from Portugal, Germany, France and Mexico, as well as a number of other countries.
The president of the World Karate Federation, Antonio Espinos, met with a number of karate officials from the Mexican Karate Federation and various countries of the continent, and also watched this prestigious competition held in Cancun.
It should be noted that 5 tournaments of the Karate1 Youth League have been included in the calendar of the 2024 season. Four of them were held in Fujairah (UAE), A Coruña (Spain), Poreč (Croatia) and Cancun (Mexico). The last tournament will be held on December 5-8 in Venice (Italy).
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