DUBAI: Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt has reached the final of the Karate Women’s Kumite +61kg competition after beating Sofya Berultseva 5-4 at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Arena on Saturday afternoon.
This guarantees Egypt at least a silver a day after compatriot Giana Lotfy claimed an Olympic bronze in karate despite losing her Women's Kumite -61kg semifinal bout to China’s Xiaoyan Yin.
The karate kumite competition does not have a bronze medal match for the semifinal losers, unlike some other Olympic disciplines, with both competitors sharing the honor of third place on the podium.
After only 20 seconds of the semifinal both athletes had scored a yuko, and Abdelaziz followed shortly with another to lead 2-1 with two of the three minutes left.
The Egyptian was full confidence and she edged closer to the final by taking a 3-1 lead halfway through the bout. All Abdelaziz needed to do was maintain her focus and at least a karate silver medal was going to Egypt.
After Zaretska pulled the score back to 3-3, Abdelaziz resounded with quick yuko to lead again, and with 22 seconds left, she went 5-3 up. Another point for her opponent could not stop a brilliant win and progress to the final where she was set to meet Iryna Zaretska of Azerbaijan.
In her first match of the day, Abdelaziz immediately showed her strength by beating Li Chong of China of 4-0, scoring an ippon with just under a minute left in the bout, and followed that up with another point with 22 second left.
In the her second match against Elena Quirici of Switzerland, the 22-year-old from Cairo took a three point lead with as superb display of skill but with less than minute left, the Swiss squared the match with an ippon. With match ending 3-3, Abdelaziz won the match via senshu - awarded for the first unopposed score of the contest.
Abdelaziz led standings after two matches at least for the four competitors in Pool B.
She had a ideal start to her third match, an ippon giving her a three-point lead after 32 seconds. After her opponent pulled the match back to 3-3, another ippon gave her 6-3 lead with just over a minute left. But the Iran rallied and managed to pull off an impressive 9-7 win to delay Abdelaziz’s advance
Progress to the semifinals was confirmed with a 0-0 tie with the Algerian Lamya Matoub, who had lost her first three matches, a dead rubber.
Matoub had started her day with a 2-1 loss to Quirici, and in her second match had come up against a formidable in the shape of Abbasali. The Iranian twice scored a wazari to win 4-0.
On an extremely cagey third match for the Algerian, an ippon for Li Gong with less than minute left, and a further point with seconds left, secured a 4-0 win for the Chinese athlete.
With three defeat in three, Matoub’s chances of progress were over, before she had stepped onto the mat to face Abelaziz.
