DUBAI: Egypt’s Giana Lotfy claimed an Olympic bronze in karate after losing her semifinal bout to China’s Xiaoyan Yin at the Nippon Budokan Arena on Friday afternoon.
Lotfy, 26, came agonizingly close to beating Yin in the women’s kumite -61 kg class after the match finished 1-1, but lost the tie after the judges awarded the win to her opponent.
Yin later lost the final against Serbia’s Jovana Prekovic, who had beaten Turkey’s Merve Coban in the other semi.
Lotfy’s bronze was the first to be awarded in the women’s kumite -61 kg class, with karate only making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
The karate kumite competition does not have a bronze medal match for the semifinal losers, unlike some other Olympic disciplines, with both competitors sharing the honor of third place on the podium.
Lotfy started the Pool B competition by beating Alexandra Vanessa Grande Risco of Peru 2-0 in her first match on Friday morning and followed that up with a tight 2-1 win over Anita Serogina of Ukraine.
Lotfy was then completely dominant in her 5-0 win over the Moroccan Btissam Sadini. The final pool match against eventual gold medalist Prekovic finished 1-1, with the win awarded via senshu for the Serbian.
The results were enough to see her qualify from Pool B to for Friday afternoon’s semi and secure the bronze for Egypt.
