With the Senior Asian Karate Championship 2017 kicking things off, the Lankans have not yet marked their presence in the championship. So far, Sri Lanka has not yet been able to get hands on any metalware as the favourite powerhouses such as Japan, Iran, Indonesia, China, Chinese Taipei and hosts Kazakhstan, show top form.
Starting with Sri Lanka’s S. Baluraj being eliminated from the opening stages of the Male Kata and Japan’s world champion Ryo Kyuna pulling off a brilliant performace to see competition at the final with Indonesia’s Zigi Zaresta Yuda, who is eyeing her 1 st major international medal at her debut international final, the championship stepped up its intensity little by little.
In the Female Kata category, Emiri Iwamoto of Japan succeeded in seeing the final along with Indonesia’s Sisilia Ora. Sri Lanka’s Iresha Thirimanna could not match the form and level of her counterparts from these powerhouses.
Dinusha Perera too could not make it to the final of her -50kg Female Kumite event as Ayaka Tadano from Sakura land and Sari Sukatendel Srunita of Indonesia dominated the bouts throughout the stages which led the duo to the final.
In the Female -55kg Kumite Chinese Taipei’s Tzu-Yun Wen who is ranked at no. 2 in the world karate rankings, also the defending champ of this event, came into the final as forecasted along with Japan’s Fumika Ishiai who is seeing her 1 st major international final. Players of such caliber were too hot to handle for our Lankans, where in this particular event it was Buddhika Jayakody who succumbed to the inexperience and lack of international level composure that impedes our players.
Furthermore, Tharika Samanmali too could not see the daylight of the final of the Female -61kg Kumite event as China’s Xiaoyan Xin who is the event’s favourite, worked her way into the finals through her dominance. Hong Kong’s Wan Yu Choi will be battling it out with Xin as the final bout.
Also, Lingling Tang of China made her mark in the event by coming into the final with Japan’s frontrunner Kayo Someya.
Moreover, world champion Ayumi Uekusa of Japan has set her eyes on the Female +68kg kumite gold, which will if realized, be her 3 rd gold medal this season. In the final along with Uekusa is Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Hong Anh.
Lankan Ruwan Fonseka too were pushed off the ladder to the finals of the Male -55kg Kumite by Andrey Aktauov of host Kazakhstan and Majid Hassanniadeilami of Iran who emerged to the finals.
Also, Kazakhstan’s Rinat Sagandykov and Daniyar Yuldashev will be competing with respectively, Fahad Alkhathami of Saudi Arabia at the Male -67kg Kumite final and Japan’s Masaya Ishikuza at the Male -84kg Kumite final.
Lankan karateka Prasanna Senanayake too could not make it beyond the opening bouts in the Male -75kg Kumite as Chinese Taipei’s Wei-Chun Hsu and Iran’s Bahman Asgari emerged crushed their opposition to emerge at the final.
More notably, there will be a few interesting bouts on offer for the Karate fans and followers worldwide as defending world champion Amir Mehdizadeh of Iran, will await to shake off the rising star – Uzbekistan’s young Sadridin Saymatov off his tail. Saymatov at the age of 19 years, has already won 3 gold medals in 3 different Karate 1 Pemier League tournaments while the
Iranian ace he will be taking on, is aiming his 2 nd consecutive continental title while having already earned the World and Asian titles back-to- back.
Adding to the adrenaline hype is the fight between Iran’s World Champion Sajad Ganjzadeh and Saudi Arabia’s young Tareg Hamidi who only 2 weeks ago secured a gold medal at the WKF Karate 1 Youth Cup. This will be his 1 st continental gold medal if Hamidi manages to keep the world champion Sajad at bay.
