Aspiring Karate stars and Egyptian karatekas took the spotlight on the first day of the competition of the 2022 Karate 1-Series A event in Cairo (Egypt). The Cairo International Stadium hosts the second Karate 1-Series A tournament of the season.

Representatives of the host country had a strong opening day in Cairo. Asmaa Allam took the flag of the organising nation to the final of Female Kata after prevailing in her pool with a score of 23.54, much to the surprise of favourites. Her rival in the title-deciding bout is Yee Ying Tung of Hong Kong who dominated the last pool with a score of 25.28.

The second category of the day also had an Egyptian representative competing for gold since Abdalla Abdelgawad made it to the final of Male Kumite -75kg following a tight victory by “Hantei” or decision (0-0) over team-mate Mohamed Mahmoud. The other spot in the final is for Sultan Alzahrani of Saudi Arabia. Number 33 in the WKF World Ranking Alzahrani aims at reaching the Top 32 after beating Beybarys Zhangbyr of Kazakhstan in the semi-finals 6-1.  

The third spot in the finals for the hosts came in Female Kumite +68kg. Habiba Helmy reached her first final in international competitions after beating teammate Haidi Mahgoud in the semi-finals 2-1. Lily-Rose Nolet of Canada prevented an All-Egyptian final since she defeated local hopeful Misara Baiomy 3-0 in the semi-finals.

The final of Female Kumite -61kg will have two new names fighting for gold. Karima Mekkaoui of Algeria reached the last day of the competition after edging Yara Hamza of Egypt 1-0 while Tsubasa Kama of Japan qualified for the last bout following a 3-0 victory over team-mate Sakura Demachi.

Meanwhile, in Male Kumite -84kgEnes Garibovic of Croatia and Junya Eto of Japan qualified for the gold medal bout. Garibovic defeated Kazato Takeda of Japan in the semi-finals 5-2 while Eto did the same over Kamran Madani of the United States 4-3.

The gold in Male Team Kata will go to the squads of Kuwait or Egypt as they topped their pools with scores of 25.06 and 23.86 respectively.

The medal bouts on Sunday will be available LIVE on the WKF YouTube channel. 

CLICK HERE to go to the 2022 Karate 1-Series A Cairo micro-site.