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World Karate Championships qualifiers:
Iran’s Sadeqi punches Cairo ticket in women’s individual kata
Having beaten opponents from South Korea, Montenegro, and Austria in the pool phase, Sadeqi impressed with a sharp and fluid kata, defeating Chinese Taipei’s Chien Hui-Hsuan 40.30 to 38.80 in the knockouts to join Brazil’s Gabrielle Henrique, Mexican Yaneth Quiroz Castillo, Sofia Fialkova of Slovakia, Sakura Alforte of the Philippines, and Singapore’s Shannon Leong Wai Yee in booking their tickets for the showpiece in the Egyptian capital. The four-time Asian bronze medalist will now be looking to build on her gold-winning campaign at January’s Karate 1 Series A event in Tbilisi to chase the first world medal of her illustrious career, which also includes silver medals at the Konya 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games and the 2019 World Beach Games in Doha. In the men’s kata event, however, Iran’s Mohammad Sadra Shidzi missed out on a place in Cairo after a knockout setback (40.50 to 38.70) against Jure Sluga of Slovenia.