Egyptian Karatekas won 15 medals at the 2021 Cairo Karate 1-Premier League.
The hosts claimed 4 gold, 5 silver, 6 bronze medals as the four gold medals have been achieved by Abdullah Mamdouh, Malek Salama, Yousef Badawi and Taha Tarek.
The Karate 1-Premier League will return on October 1 to 3 with the event to be held in Moscow.
The gold medal count for Egypt was initiated by Malek Salama in Male Kumite -60kg. In his second final of Karate 1-Premier League, the current continental Championships bronze medallist edged Sami Tas of Algeria 1-0.
Extending the title showdown for hosts, Abdallah Abdelaziz produced one of the highlights of the day with a devastating victory over Austria’s Luca Rettenbacher in Male Kumite -75kg.
The defending continental champion of the category claimed two sensational Ippon or three-point techniques or and two Yuko or one-point actions to finish the bout 8-0 with 1.45 to go before the end of regulation time.
The title-deciding bout of Male Kumite -84kg was a celebration of Egyptian Karate since local karatekas Omar Ashraf Mohamed and Youssef Badawy clashed for gold. The victory went to Youssef Badawy who signed off an outstanding Ippon to win the bout 6-2.
In a demonstration of resilience, Sohila Abouismail claimed the fourth crown for Egypt in the contested final of Female Kumite +68kg.
The local representative avenged the final of the 2016 Karate 1-Premier League Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt when the Egyptian karateka lost the title-deciding clash against Anastasiya Stepashko of Ukraine. This time, Abouismail used a late Yuko to defeat the Ukrainian representative 2-1.
The division of Male Kumite +84kg also had two local karatekas fighting for gold. Taha Tarek Mahmoud had the honour of taking the Egyptian flag to the top of the podium after edging team-mate Hazem Ahmed Mohamed 1-0.
Ukraine’s Anita Serogina brought the Olympic dream to Cairo as the Olympic karateka prevailed in Female Kumite -61kg.
The athlete from Ukraine, who finished in the third position of her pool at the Olympic competition upset Canada’s Haya Jumaa 4-0 in the final here in Cairo.
“At the Olympic Games, I got very close to winning a medal, and this was very hard for me. So, taking this gold here means a lot to me. It means that all the hard work paid off. This makes me very proud,” said Serogina who won her second-ever gold here in Cairo.
“Everybody was proud of me (when I got back from the Olympics), but even though I finished in fifth place, I really wanted to win a medal there,” she added.
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