Nguyen Hoang Ngan of Vietnam and Luka Valdesi of Italy claimed the first individual titles in the women’s and men’s kata category at the world karate championships on Friday.

Valdesi, the winner over Jonathan Mottram of England in the semifinals, narrowly defeated Antonio Diaz of Venezuela in the men’s final.

Vu Duc Minh Dack of France and Mostafa Ibrahim of Egypt shared the men’s bronze medals, while Wakabayashi and Marija Madzarevic of Serbia took the women’s bronze medals.

Meanwhile, Turkey defeated Serbia 3-1 to win the men’s kumite final, while Egypt and Spain took the women’s bronze medals beating France and Italy, respectively.

Milos Jovanovic defeated Yaser Sahintekin 4-1 in the opener to put Serbia one up, but Muslum Basturk, Yusuf Baser and Zeki Demir won their bouts 1-0, 7-2, 2-1.

Source: AFP