The Karate competition of the 2018 edition of the Asian Games ended on Monday with a final day of action in which Grand Winner Ryutaro Araga of Japan took the spotlight of the tournament with a dominating performance. Gafurova Guzaliya of Kazakhstan, Bahman Asgari Ghoncheh of Iran and Shiaushang Gu of Chinese Taipei also succeeded in the last day of competition in Jakarta. 

The Karate competition of the 2018 edition of the Asian Games ended on Monday with a final day of action in which Grand Winner Ryutaro Araga of Japan took the spotlight of the tournament with a dominating performance. Gafurova Guzaliya of Kazakhstan, Bahman Asgari Ghoncheh of Iran and Shiaushang Gu of Chinese Taipei also succeeded in the last day of competition in Jakarta. 

Grand Winner Ryutaro Araga extended Japan’s success at the 2018 Asian Games and took the fourth medal for the Japanese delegation with a hard-fought victory in Male Kumite -84kg. The current World champion edged Ahmad Almesefer of Kuwait in the final (1-1) and claimed his second gold this year after winning the title in the Asian Championships. The bronze medals in this category went to Zabiollah Poorshab of Iran and Chunwei Wu of Chinese Taipei. 

Gafurova Guzaliya of Kazakhstan produced one of the big surprises of the day after shocking favourites in Female Kumite -68kg. The Kazakh karateka had never won a gold medal in international competitions in over five years of sports career and currently takes the 102 position in WKF World ranking. Nonetheless, the promising athlete prevailed in the tournament and took gold after overpowering Lingling Tang of China in the final (2-0). The rest of the medals at stake in this category were taken by Pegah Zangenehkarkooti of Iran and Japan’s Kayo Someya. 

Meanwhile, Bahman Asgari Ghoncheh won the second gold medal for powerhouses of Iran in this tournament following his forceful performance in Male Kumite -75kg. The Iranian athlete, who is placed in the seventh position in WKF World ranking defeated Raef Adel Alturkistani of Saudi Arabia by 5-0 in a demonstration of offensive Karate after taking one Ippon and two Yuko. The podium in this category was completed by Weichun Hsu of Chinese Taipei and Bashar Alnajjar of Jordan. 

The last final of the day was a thrilling confrontation that ended with Chinese Taipei’s Shiaushuang Gu taking the gold medal of Female Kumite -50kg. The representative of Chinese Taipei beat Bakhrinisio Babaeva of Uzbekistan 3-2 in a disputed final bout, so to claim her second gold medal this year. Top favourite Miho Miyahara of Japan had to settle with the bronze medal, just as Tsukii Junna of Philippines. 

Japan topped the medal table of the Karate competition of the Asian Games with four golds and six medals, followed by Iran and Chinese Taipei both with two gold medals. No less than 18 ries took home awards in the memorable 2018 Asian Games. 

(Pictures: © Servolle Xavier / AKF)