World Championships Senior

Preview Linz 2016: Douglas Brose leads way in Male Kumite -60kg

2016-10-17

Preview Linz 2016: Douglas Brose leads way in Male Kumite -60kg

As fan favourite, current world champion and one of Karate’s top stars, Douglas Brose is set to become one of the biggest names of the upcoming 2016 Karate World Championships. His performance on the tatami in Linz will not only determine the fate of the anticipated tournament, but the destiny of a category that the Brazilian hero has dominated in major international events over the last years.

As current world champion, one of Karate’s top stars, and fan favourite Douglas Brose is set to become one of the biggest names of the upcoming 2016 Karate World Championships. His performance on the tatami in Linz will not only determine the fate of the anticipated tournament, but the destiny of a category that the Brazilian hero has dominated in major international events over the last years.

All eyes will be on Douglas Brose when the Male Kumite -60kg competition of the Karate World Championships starts in Linz. After winning four medals in the last four World Championships, and after claiming the world title of his category in 2014 and 2010, the 30 year-old Brazilian acts as one of the main candidates to cause a sensation in Linz.

The four-time World Championships medallist hopes to repeat qualification to the final of the competition, just as in the three last editions of the biggest Karate event. In 2014 in Bremen, the impressive Karate Star beat Geoffrey Berens of the Netherlands to win gold in a spectacular performance. Two years earlier in Paris, Brose barely made it to the top of the podium after losing the final bout against Iran’s Amir Mahdi Zageh, and in 2010 in Tokyo the speedy athlete claimed his first gold in World Championships in a celebrated victory over Italy’s Michele Giuliani. His quest to medals in the biggest Karate competition had started two years before in Belgrade, when the four-time continental champion reached the third position.

If the current Pan American champion continues making it to the medal bouts of the competition, Douglas Brose will establish a sensational streak of eight years in the podium of World Championships, thus confirming his condition of one of the biggest heroes of the sport.

Douglas Brose’s ascent to glory in Linz will nonetheless not be an easy path. A long list of 77 competitors will try to claim the crown in the tournament. One of the Karatekas in line to shock in Linz is Amir Mahdi Zadeh of Iran. The current bronze medallist and 2012 World champion hopes to repeat his surprising performance four years ago and regain the crown in his second appearance in major international competitions this season.

Current silver medallist and second placed in the world ranking Geoffrey Berens of the Netherlands will try to avenge his defeat in the final two years ago, so to earn his third medal of the year following his victory in Karate 1-Premier League at home in Rotterdam and the bronze in Karate 1-Premier League in Salzburg.

Tokyo 2008 runner-up Darkhan Assasilov of Kazkhstan, and Bronze medallists in previous World Championships Evgeny Plakhutin of Russia, Marko Antic of Serbia, Matias Gomez of Spain and Kalvis Kalnins of Latvia, among many others will take their chances on the tatami of Linz.

Go to the World Championships section to find more information on Linz 2016. 

All the best photos and videos from on the tatamis and behind the scenes of the World Championships will be posted on the WKF’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram pages.