Li Gong and Sajad Ganjzadeh impress on day 2 of Karate at Asian Games
10/6/2023
Multisport events
The second day of the Karate competition of the 2023 Asian Games had Olympic Games champion Sajad Ganjzadeh of Iran and China's Li Gong as the biggest stars.
China claimed their second gold medal in Karate at the event following the outstanding performance by Li Gong in Female Kumite -61kg. The Olympic Games bronze medallist took an impressive 9-0 victory over Thi Ngoan Nguyen of Vietnam in the final of the category and demonstrated the strength of Chinese Karate at the highest level.
Olympic champion Sajad Ganjzadeh confirmed once again his star status with another title to add to his Olympic Games gold medal, his World crown and 11 titles in Karate 1-Premier League. The current Asian Championships bronze medallist defeated Adilet Shadykanov of Kyrgyzstan 4-2 in the final of Male Kumite +84kg thus becoming one of the main heroes of the Karate competition in Hangzhou.
The last individual final of the day was claimed by Kaisar Alpysbay of Kazakhstan in Male Kumite -60kg. The Kazakh athlete who is the current Asian champion of the category upset Abdullah Shaaban of Kuwait in the final 7-5.
The second day of action saw the first team category taking the stage. Vietnam were too strong to handle and reached the top of the podium of Female Team Kata after beating Malaysia in the final with scores of 42.70 to 39.00.
The Karate action in Hangzhou continues on Day 3 with the categories of Male Kumite -84kg, Female Kumite -55kg, Male Kumite -67kg, and Female Kumite +68kg. Taking the stage.