Asian Cadet, Junior & U21 Karate Championship:
Girls’ glory inspires Iran to team title
Iranian girls accounted for nine of the 11 gold medals as the country collected 31 medals to secure the team title at the Asian Cadet, Junior & U21 Karate Championship in Amman, Jordan.
Iranian girls stole the show in the U21 women’s kumite category on Thursday, bagging four golds and one bronze across five weight classes to bring the curtain down on a glorious campaign for the country in the Jordanian capital.
Ghazal Fat’hi claimed the top prize in the -50kg event with an 11-1 victory over Saudi Arabia’s Joud Myajan in the final, while Fatemeh Ja’farnejad defeated the host’s Balsam Al-Saaideh 4-1 for the -55kg gold.
Zahra Rezazadeh capped off her dominant -61kg campaign, during which she did not concede a single point across three bouts, with a 5-0 win against Macau’s Lo Pui Cheng in the final. Mahla Sedaqat added a fourth gold on the final day in the +68kg division, beating India’s Kalyani Vishwakarma 9-0 in the final.
Boshra Imani, meanwhile, settled for a consolation bronze in the -68kg class, bouncing back from a semifinal setback against India’s Anshika Bhardwaj to beat Jordan’s Shadi Said Al Najjar in the third-place bout.
Elsewhere, Abolfazl Tamaddonzadeh added a silver to Iran’s medal haul in the men’s U21 contests following a 5-1 loss to Tajikistan’s Makhsatullo Muminov in the -55kg final.
Mahdi Choubakzan finished with a bronze in the -67kg class, courtesy of a 4-3 win against Chinese Taipei’s Huang Tsu-en in the third-place bout.
Abolfazl Hamdamjou (-60kg), Erfan Koshaqideh (-75kg), Vahab Shahmir (-84kg), and Taha Yousefi (+84kg) were the other Iranians in men’s U21 action but missed out on the podium in their respective events.
Nirvana Razzaqi (-47kg), Baran Shadfar (-54kg), and Dina Karimi (-61kg) were the Iranian gold medalists in the girls’ cadet category, with Abolfazl Arab-Yaqoubi (-63kg) and Hamidreza Rezayati (-70kg) triumphing in the boys’ competition.
In the junior kumite, meanwhile, Iran’s sole gold medal came in the women’s -53kg class, where Setayesh Qaneifard defeated Ramah Khayyat in the final.
Iran was also not short of glory in the kata contests, spearheaded by Dina Safari, who outscored Iraq’s Lanya Ahmed in the cadet girls’ final.
Saudi Arabia tallied 23 medals, including eight golds, to finish runner-up to Iran in the team standings, with Jordan in third place with seven golds.