Quintero, Sanchez make it Spanish grand double

Spain swept both the gold medals of the Karate competition at the ANOC World Beach Games yesterday as Damian Quintero and Sandra Sanchez won the men’s and women’s Kata title respectively.The crowning of Quintero as the first male champion of Beach Karate completed a memorable day in Doha as the historic Karate tournament Beach Games concluded in Katara Beach. Quintero, who is the second placed karateka in WKF World ranking defeated Yi Ta Wang of Chinese Taipei in a thrilling final. It was a day full of surprises Wang qualified for the title-deciding bout after shocking favourites. The representative of Chinese Taipei is placed 13th in WKF World Ranking and had been away of the podium of major international events since his silver at the 2018 AKF Championships.   In the final, Quintero proved too strong with his performance of “Suparinpei” kata. The Spaniard got a score of 26.40 while Yi Ta Wang received 24.94 points.  Quintero said: “It has been a great experience. It was the first time that we competed on the sand and I really enjoyed it. All the competitors gave 100%, all of us tried to adapt to the new surface with differences in their katas and it has been a very entertaining tournament. I hope that Karate will continue being part of this event in its future editions.”The podium in male Kata was completed with Antonio Diaz of Venezuela and Gakuji Tozaki of the USA who upset Salman Almosawi of Kuwait and Ahmad Zigi Zaretsa Yuda of Indonesia, respectively in the bronze medal bouts. Earlier, Sandra Sanchez made history as she became the first champion of the Karate competition at ANOC World Beach Games by winning the women’s title.  World champion Sanchez confirmed once again her number one status and was proclaimed one of the best Kata karatekas of all times with the gold medal in Beach Karate. The current World and European title-holder, defending Grand Winner and gold medallist at the European Games extended her outstanding tally of awards with the crown of the first World Beach Games. In the final today in Doha, Sanchez beat Fatemeh Sadegui of Iran. The Iranian karateka had produced the biggest upset of the day with her qualification to the final. Fatemeh Sadegui is placed in the 23rd position in WKF World Ranking and has the silver medal at the 2015 World Junior Championships as her best result.