Premier League record – 383 karatekas from 56 countries

The second stage of the WKF karate Premier League in Rabat turned out to be one of the most massive in terms of the composition of the participants.

It was attended by 383 athletes from 56 countries, which is a record figure for the tournament. The performance of karatekas, including representatives of ”Budo Nord”, turned out to be appropriate.

Vasylenko Olha competed in women’s kumite in the 50 kg category. It cannot be said that the Ukrainian turned out to be weaker than her rivals in the group, but sports happiness turned away from her somewhere. For example, in a fight with Elhayti Chaimae from Morocco, who won first place in the quartet, she lost to her rival Hantey. And the defeat of Vasylenko from the Taiwanese karateka Gu Shiau-Shuang turned into a difference in points – 0:1. And only the Croatian Pehar Jelena she lost with a score of 0:6.

A little better with one victory was Vasylenko’s friend from the Ukrainian team Protsenko Anna (55 kg). She beat the Greek Stoli Maria (1:0), but this result did not allow her to break through, as in the other two meetings Protsenko lost, losing to Brunori Veronica from Italy (1:4) and Allen Trinity from the USA. (0:3) . As a result – the third place in the subgroup.

Also in Rabat, Zareı Loren was able to win one fight. The Swedish karateka was able to cope with Kuklova Hana from Slovakia (3:0), but she lost the rest of the meetings. For Zareı, the confrontations with Erdaulet Assemgul from Kazakhstan (1:3) and Italian Toro Meneses Valentına (0:8) turned out to be unsuccessful, which left the Swede out of the playoffs.

Nilsson Anna-Johanna had a good chance of reaching the quarterfinals.

The Swedish karateka, thanks to Hantei, defeated the Ukrainian Sholokhova Oleksandra, and then managed to defeat Ejja Iman from the Belgian team with a difference of six points (8:2). However, in the decisive match for first place in the group, Nilsson lost to the Greek Chrysopoulou Konstantina (3:0), becoming the second in the quartet.

Ukrainian Melnyk Halyna performed unsuccessfully in the Premier League, losing in turn to Slovak Krivdová Sára, Kama Tsubasa from Japan and Turkish Kilic Melike Esma. As a result, he finished fourth place in his group.

In men’s kumite in the weight up to 67 kg, two athletes competed at once, on the equipment ”Budo Nord”. The Portuguese Mendes Joaquim lost to Oubaya Said from Morocco (0:3), and then lost to the Greek Xenos Dionysios – 0:2.

Ukrainian Kopytko Denys was also defeated in all his fights. In the duel with Figueira Vinicius, everything was decided by one accurate blow performed by the Brazilian (0:1), and then followed by a defeat from the Japanese Nakano Soichiro – 1:4. And then Kopytko failed to cope with Homola Matej from Slovakia – 2:5.

Australian athlete Sullivan Khanna started with a 2-1 win over Egypt’s Mahgoub Haidi. In the next match, she lost to the representative of Lesjak Lucija (1:5). Sullivan, who won the third fight against the Swiss Kadoic Mia (6:1), eventually took second place in the group and could not pass to the next stage.

The largest number of gold medals in Rabat was won by Japanese athletes, who rose to the top step of the podium three times. At the same time, both in the women’s and men’s kata, three Japanese karatekas were among the winners. The Jordanian team won two victories, and one of the heroines of the tournament was the leader of the Azerbaijani women’s team, Iryna Zaretska (68 kg), who celebrated her first victory of the season. Meanwhile, the third phase of the Premier League will soon host Fukuoka. On June 9-11, the best karatekas of the planet will gather in Japan.