The 2023 Karate 1-Youth League A Coruna ended Sunday with a final day of the competition that put U14 karatekas on the stage. Powerhouse nations of Ukraine and Spain topped the final medal table of the event with nine gold medals each.

Spain’s gold medal count was extended by Elisey Yagudin in U14 Male Kata as the promising local karateka beat George Florea Razvan of Romania 25.1 to 24.8.

The second gold medal for the host was taken by Nadira Garcia in U14 Kumite Female -42kg. The Spanish karateka defeated Ellis De Brandt of Belgium in the final 3-1.

Local fans celebrated one more triumph as Victor Carillo became the champion in U14 Kumite Male -50kg after beating Franko Janic of Croatia 7-0.

The Spanish delegation was on the brink of adding more golds to their list of honours, but Leonor Goncalves of Portugal upset local hopeful Alejandra Gomez in U14 Female Kumite -52kg (3-0), and Miley Schlinder of Germany defeated Paula Gines in U14 Kumite Female +52kg (8-0).

In U14 Kumite Male -55kg, Matvii Drik of Ukraine also upset local representative David Rios by 8-4.

Ukraine finished the event on a high note with Yaroslav Kinash extending the gold medal count for the Ukrainian delegation with a 4-1 victory in U14 Kumite Male +55kg over Croatia’s Ante Matijevic.

The final of U14 Female Kata was decided by a slim 0.1 point as Giulia Manca of Belgium defeated Julia Vilanova of France 24.3 to 24.2.

In U14 Female Kumite -47kg the title went to Romania as Ioana Balanescu beat Lucie Bukovska of the Czech Republic 1-0 while Soufian Chaibi added one more gold for France following a 5-0 victory over Martin Gaspar of Slovakia in U14 Kumite Male -40kg.

The highest-scoring final of the day happened in U14 Kumite Male -45kg. Janos Toth of Hungary won the title by an impressive 14-6 over Ukraine’s Kyryl Matvieiev.

2023 KARATE 1 YOUTH LEAGUE A CORUNA

(Pictures: @ JM Rodriguez / RFEK)