The Karate 1-Youth League Umag finished on Sunday with Russian young karatekas dominating the competition and youngsters from all over the world showcasing the impact of Karate in young ages. It is the third major Karate event being held in Umag (Croatia) in two weeks, and the second tournament of the season of the first-class series of Karate’s underage international competitions.

The Karate 1-Youth League Umag finished on Sunday with Russian young karatekas dominating the competition and youngsters from all over the world showcasing the impact of Karate in young ages. It is the third major Karate event being held in Umag (Croatia) in two weeks, and the second tournament of the season of the first-class series of Karate’s underage international competitions.

After the historic Youth Olympic qualification tournament and the massive WKF Youth Camp & Cup, Umag hosted the second Karate 1-Youth League tournament of the season. Russia showed the power of their grass-roots programmes since the representatives of the European country topped the medal table of the event. The Russian delegation took home no less than eight gold medals to a total of 21 medals in an outstanding demonstration of abilities of the young Russian athletes. 

Mikhail Poimtsev headed Russia’s successful performance in Umag. After nearly winning the ticket to Buenos Aires 2018 following his defeat in semi-finals in phase 1 of the Olympic qualification tournament, Poimtsev bounced back from the disappointment and triumphed in the Junior Male Kumite -61kg category. Kiril Kuznetcov continued the Russian success in Umag and dominated the Junior Male Kumite -76kg while Akhmed Akhmedov in Cadet Kumite Male -52kg and Egor Pulkin in Cadet Kumite Male -63kg also showed the prevalence of Russian representatives in the Cadet categories. After winning bronze at the Junior European Championships and getting gold at the WKF Youth Cup in Umag last year, Russia’s Anna Shcherbina prevailed in Junior Kata Female and closed the gold medal count for Russian young karatekas. 

Italy and Croatia with three golds respectively also finished the event of a high note. The young karatekas from the organising country recovered from the setback of missing one of the tickets to Buenos Aires 2018 and claimed three of the big honours this past weekend. Petra Nuic in Cadet Female Kumite +54kg, Aleksandar Kalabic in Cadet Kumite Male +70kg and Lea Vukoja in Junior Female Kumite +59kg took the flag of the host nation to the top of the podium. 

The universality of Karate at young ages was also stated at the event since no less than 18 different countries won gold medals in Umag. Nearly 2000 youngsters from 75 nations had participated in the massive second tournament of the season of the 2018 Karate 1-Youth League. 

The Karate 1-Youth League will now travel to Cancun in Mexico where a new celebration of the sport will be held from October 26 to 28.