NEW CHAMPION

The World Karate Championship ended in Madrid. The Azerbaijani team won two medals of the prestigious competition attended by the representatives of 139 countries.

The leader of the women's national team Irina Zaretska (68 kg) received the highest award of the championship and became the new world champion. After defeating Feryal Abdelaziz (Egypt), Dildor Annadurdieva (Uzbekistan), Yelena Guirici (Switzerland), Miroslava Kopunova (Slovakia) and Galina Melnik (Ukraine), the Ukrainian legionnaire reached the final round, where she had to defeat the Russian athlete Viktoria Isaeva. The success followed the Azerbaijani athlete and for the first time in her sports career, Zaretska was awarded the gold medal of the world championship.

"I knew it would be difficult. Although I was preparing for the championship very seriously, there was no certainty that I would become a champion," said Zaretska. According to Zaretska, the competition at the World Karate Championship was very difficult. Therefore, being on the podium is already a great achievement. "Before the final round, I was thinking only about winning. I had to win the final round. My coaching staff has contributed to my victory a lot. After correctly analysing the rivals, we completed all the meetings with a victory," Zaretska said.

The leader of the Azerbaijani national team, Rafael Aghayev, who is considered one of the strongest karate players in the world, took the third place. The five-time world champion and two-time finalist became the bronze medallist of the competition for the first time. After defeating the athletes from Guatemala, Argentina, Hungary and China, Rafael Aghaev lost to his opponent, Italian athlete Luigi Busa, with just one point difference in the semifinals of the World Championship. All his fights caused great interest and were accompanied by applause. In the meeting for the bronze award, Rafael defeated Dastonbek Atabolayev from Uzbekistan and became the third strongest athlete in the world.

Rafael Aghayev also shared his thoughts about his performance: "I came to Madrid to be a champion. I wished that our anthem plays for the sixth time in the world championship. Unfortunately, it did not work out. If an athlete loses, he must find his own mistakes to prepare better for the next competition. My main goal is to be qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Since karate competitions at the Games will be held for the first time, a very difficult calendar of competitions has been developed. It is important to train carefully."

Aghayev noted that at the World Championships, the Azerbaijani team had a chance to win a bronze medal in the team competition too. However, the national team was not lucky. "Azerbaijani karate team is one of the strongest in the world. Therefore, our opponents prepare for competitions having us in mind. Nevertheless, I believe that we will perform successfully in regular tournaments," Aghayev shared his optimism.

In the team competition, the national team of Azerbaijan remained behind the line of winners. After defeating the national teams of Spain, Belarus and Egypt, the students of Shahin Khudaverdiyev lost in the semifinals to the Turkish national team. In the competition for the bronze medal, Azerbaijani athletes could not defeat the Japanese national team, which was considered one of the favourites of the world championship.

The performance of the Azerbaijani national team in para-karate, also included in the program of the world championship, was successful. Scoring 40.5 points, Sahib Ahadov became the winner in his group and reached the finals. In the decisive meeting, he lost to Japanese Yasushi Oba by only 0.9 points. With 43.7 points in this round of the competition, our athlete became the silver medallist.

Azerbaijani karatekas also performed in individual kata and kumite competitions, as well as in kata, kumite and para-karate team tournaments. Azerbaijan was not represented only in team competitions in women's kata performances.