The Japanese Kata icon won the gold medal at the 2021 Karate World Senior Championships today and broke the record of World crowns won at Karate’s biggest event in Male Kata categories.
“I feel happy for winning this World Championships. For me, it was like if I won my first World Championships”, Ryo Kiyuna said.
Kiyuna defeated Damian Quintero of Spain in the final of Male Kata of #KarateDubai2021. The current Olympic champion excelled in his performance of “Ohan Dai” kata outscoring Quintero by 28.38 points to 26.66 points.
“I did ‘Ohan Dai’ Kata today. I enjoyed how I felt doing this kata on top of the tatami. I have my teammates to thank because they helped me improve my Kata,” the World champion said.
With his triumph in Dubai, Kiyuna claims his fourth consecutive World crown after taking the titles in Bremen 2014, Linz 2016 and Madrid 2018.
The 31-year-old karateka joins Atsuko Wakai also from Japan as the athlete with the most medals won at World Championships in Kata. His victory today also makes Kiyuna exceed his own master Tsuguo Sakumoto as well as France’s Michael Milon who have three crowns each. Only Rafael Aghayev of Azerbaijan has won more World titles with five.
Source: www.wkf.net
