AKF Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships:
Iranian karatekas enjoy medal-laden opening day
Iranian young guns collected eight cadet medals – including double women’s kumite golds – on the first day of the AKF Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships in Shaoguan, China.
Setayesh Qaneiefard defeated Malaysian Lalitaanjali Ravindran 3-0 in the final to walk away with the ultimate prize in the -54kg contests.
Iran’s second gold medal came in the +61kg class, where Setayesh Afshar came out on top against Thailand’s Chonlada Nisangkat 4-2 in the final.
Meanwhile, Arshia Mo’alemi and Faryar Bahadori settled for a couple of silver medals in the boys’ kumite competitions.
Mo’alemi fell to a 6-3 defeat against the host’s Shi Enxi in the -63kg final, while Bahadori suffered a 3-0 loss to Ukyo Kaneko of Japan in the -70kg showdown.
There were further medals for the Iranian girls in the kumite contests as Ava Farmani and Dina Karimi finished their campaigns with two consolation bronzes.
Farmani bounced back from a first-round setback (2-0) against ultimate champion Hana Yamamoto of Japan to beat Yemen’s Muaadh Mahyoub 5-0 in repechage before defeating Kazakhstan’s Nurinissa Dairkhan 4-0 for a joint-third place alongside Saudi girl Hessah Al Rasheed.
Karimi also suffered a defeat against a Japanese opponent in Wakana Karikomi (4-0) but still managed to outclass the host’s Chi Siying 10-0 and share the third podium with Yen Chiao-yun of the Chinese Taipei.
Iran also bagged two team kata bronzes in the combined cadet and junior event.
Amirreza Chamani, Amirali Mirzazadeh, Matin Farimand, and Ata Farimand teamed up to beat China but fell to a 36.8-36.1 loss to Japan in the semifinals, before recovering to score 38.5 points against Uzbekistan’s 36.1 in the boys’ third-place contest.
The Iranian quadruple of Dina Safari, Fatemeh Sehatbakhsh, Hannaneh Nourollahzadeh, and Kowsar Ranjbar took the bronze in the girls’ event following a semifinal loss to Japan.