Karate Premier League tournament in Cairo

The World Karate season for 2023 has come into its own.

This can be illustrated by the example of the first Premier League tournament of the current year, which took place in Cairo. He was remembered for spectacular fights, the highest level of competition and the performance of first-class stars who gave the fans vivid emotions.

Failures in women’s kumite

Athletes using «Budo-Nord» equipment also took part in the debut Premier League of the season. In women’s kumite, the main attention was paid to Ukrainian karatekas Kmit Solomiya (50 kg) and Melnyk Galina (68 kg). But both participants of the competition did not develop in the best way. Melnik took the last place in her group, losing in turn to Gil Alvarez Adriana (Spain, 1:5), Mekkaoui Karima (Algeria, 0:1) and Hamza Yara (0:4), the owner of the tatami. Kmit also failed to win a single victory in Cairo, becoming the last in her group. Solomiya lost to Yaser Nagham of Egypt, Tsukii Junna of the Philippines and Tsang Yee Ting of Hong Kong.

In the men’s kumite in the weight up to 84 kg, two «Budo-Nord» karatekas are declared – Tsymbal Kostıanty and Toroshanko Andrıı from the Ukrainian team. Toroshanko, following the results of the group round, became the fourth. He was defeated in fights against Aktas Ugur (5:9, Turkey), tatami owner Mohamed Omar Ashraf (1:3), as well as Srıtı Mehdı (0:2, Morocco).

In turn, Tsymbal repeated the result of his teammate – fourth place in the group. He lost to Tımmermans Brıan (0:6, the Netherlands) by six points, and then could not impose a fight on Mamayev Aykhan (2:5, Azerbaijan) and Bougrıne Anouar (0:6, Belgium).

Talibov – out of the quarterfinals

Rizvan Talibov took to the tatami in the heavy weight category +84 kg. Last year, the Ukrainian won a bronze medal in Cairo, and the season was quite successful for him, taking into account the third place in the European Championship, as well as getting into the top three in the Baku Premier League. But this time in the capital of Egypt, Talibov performed worse, finishing fourth in his group. Although with a greater share of luck, he could reach the quarterfinals. Although Ryzvan lost to Azerbaijani Osmanli Osman with a difference of three points (3:6), in other fights the Ukrainian looked at least as good as his rivals. He lost to the Italian Avanzini Matteo with a difference of one point (3:4), according to the same scenario, the fight with Felipin Salgado Giovani took place, which ended in the victory of the Brazilian – 4:5.

Grand Winners

In general, the Premier League gathered a representative composition of participants – 382 karatekas from 58 countries performed in it. And an additional bonus was the award ceremony for the best at the end of the season – Grand Winner. Among the laureates, Anzhelika Terlyuga deserves special mention, she became the best for the fourth time.

Prior to that, the Ukrainian won the title in 2017, 2019 and 2020-2021. It should also be noted the silver medalist of the Olympics Irina Zaretskaya, who was recognized as the Grand Winner for the third time in her career.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Female Kata: Hikaru Ono (JPN)

Female Kumite -50kg: Yorgelis Salazar (VEN)

Female Kumite -55kg: Anzhelika Terliuga (UKR)

Female Kumite -61kg: Anita Serogina (UKR)

Female Kumite -68kg: Irina Zaretska (AZE)

Female Kumite +68kg: Ayaka Saito (JPN)

Male Kata: Nishiyama Kakeru (JPN)

Male Kumite -60kg: Aminagha Guliyev (AZE)

Male Kumite -67kg: Dionysios Xenos (GRE)

Male Kumite -75kg: Abdalla Abdelaziz (EGY)

Male Kumite -84kg: Mohamed Ramadan (EGY)

Male Kumite +84kg: Mahmoud Taha Tarek (EGY)

If we talk about the results of the Premier League, then in Cairo the hosts were successful, winning three gold, three silver and six bronze medals.

Если же говорить о результатах премьер-лиге, то в Каире преуспели хозяева, выигравшие три золотые, три серебряные и шесть бронзовых награды. Also, the Ukrainian team won three gold medals and one bronze medal, while the Japanese team won two gold medals and four third places.

The next prestigious Series Karate1 League Premier League tournament will be held April 12-14 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco.