Jordan’s Abdel Rahman Al-Masatfa has claimed an Olympic bronze medal after losing the semifinal of the karate kumite 67-kg competition against Eray Samdan of Turkey at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo.
The 2-0 win meant Samdan progressed to the final against Frenchman Steven da Costa, who had beaten Darkhan Assadilov 5-3 in the earlier semifinal.
Da Costa went on to win gold by beating Samdan 5-0 in the final.
Al-Masafta did not hit the heights he had reached on Thursday morning when he won four matches in a row, including against da Costa. With 20 seconds left, the Jordanian found himself 2-0 down against Samdan, and needing a three-point ippon if he was to produce a late turnaround.
He will now contend himself with claiming a bronze for Jordan.
While the winners of the semifinals met in the gold medal match, the two losers — Al-Masatfa and Assadilov — were guaranteed their third place prizes without the bronze medal match that other Olympic disciplines require.
The 25-year-old Al-Masatfa had started Thursday’s participation in Pool B with an 8-3 win over Kalvis Kalnins of Latvia, before defeating da Costa 7-4.
After his bout against Angelo Crescenzo was cancelled due to the Italian pulling out of the competition, Al-Masatfa continued his winning run by beating Hamoon Derafshipour of the Refugee Olympic Team 3-0.
The Jordanian rounded up his Pool B matches with a 4-1 win over Andres Eduardo Madera Delgado of Venezuela to secure his semi-final spot.
