At the XXV Karate World Championships 2021, which finished the day before (November 16-21) in Dubai, the national team of Ukraine won a record number of awards. Anita Seryogina won “silver” – the first for Ukrainian women, and graduates of Lviv State University of Physical Culture named after Ivan Bobersky Kateryna Kryva and Halyna Melnyk (pictured – third from left and third from right, respectively) won bronze medals.
The 25th World Cup gathered more than 1,000 participants from 117 countries in Dubai. The level of competition was extremely high. Already on the first day of competition, November 17, the most titled karate player of Ukraine Anita Seryogina reached the final of the tournament in the category up to 61 kg. On the way to the final she defeated Lynn Shann (Netherlands) – 1: 0, Ante Stiliana (Cyprus) – 1: 0, Indira Zuniga (Spain) – 1: 1, Anna-Johanna Nilsson (Sweden) – 2: 0 Hayu Jumaa Canada) – 0: 0 (according to the Khanty). So for the first time in history we got the Ukrainian finalist of the world championships.
Two more of our athletes had the opportunity to compete in consolation fights for the “bronze”. Kateryna Kryva (weight category up to 50 kg), whose personal trainer is a senior lecturer at the Department of Fencing, Boxing and National Martial Arts of our university Igor Bogdan (pictured – second right), in the first fight with a score of 1: 1 lost to German Shari Khubrikh in the first score, and then Hubrich made it to the finals.
Halyna Melnyk (weight category up to 68 kg), who trains with Anton Nikulin, a graduate of LDUFK, started the tournament with two victories – over rivals from Spain (3: 2) and Portugal (5: 1), but in the third round she lost to Azerbaijan, ex-Ukrainian Iryna Zaretska (0: 2), who also advanced to the final.
The next day, November 18, in consolation battles, Catherine defeated rivals from Scotland (4: 1), Austria (4: 3), Algeria (2: 1) and won the right to the “bronze” final. And Galina defeated athletes from Belgium (8: 1) and Brazil (3: 3), thus also making it to the “bronze” final.
The rest of our athletes finished their performances on the first day. Unfortunately, Stanislav Goruna (-75 kg) unexpectedly lost in the first fight to the Dutchman Timothy Petersen (0: 2), who then quickly dropped out of the competition. Instead, Angelika Terliuga (-55 kg), crushing rivals from Korea (6: 0) and Brazil (5: 0), once again lost to her traditionally uncomfortable opponent – Bulgarian Ivet Goranova, who last defeated Lika last summer in the final of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo . This time Goranova won again (5: 3), but in the next round she unexpectedly lost to Trinity Allen from the USA, depriving the Ukrainian of the opportunity to compete for the “bronze”.
Vice-champion of the world 2018 Valery Chobotar after three victories lost to Judge Nabil Ash-Shaabi of Morocco (0: 0). Unfortunately, the Moroccan lost in the semifinals, and Valery was also left without comforting fights.
Other Ukrainian athletes competed in the kumite as follows: Gnat Pak (-67 kg) had three fights, Rizvan Talibov (84+ kg) – two, Nikita Filipov (-60 kg) and Anastasia Stepashko (68+ kg) – one each.
In the category of executioner, Christina Broom was unable to perform at full strength due to certain health problems. But we will pay tribute to the courage of our champion. And 17-year-old junior Yaroslav Fedorov, the debutant of the World Cup, proved that he was rightfully a member of the adult national team of Ukraine. 67 athletes competed in his category. In the first round, Yaroslav took third place among nine athletes in his group and advanced to the next round. In the second round, Yaroslav became the fifth among eight athletes in the group and finished in the TOP-20 of the best participants in the world championship.
Unfortunately, the Ukrainians did not perform very well in the team kumite competitions. The women defeated Egypt and Algeria, losing to Egypt and then defeating Belarus in consolation matches, but lost to Italy in the battle for the bronze medal. And the men defeated the teams of Greece and the Russian Karate Federation, but then lost to Uzbekistan, which lost to Serbia in the semifinals, leaving us without consolation fights.
But here came the day of the bronze and gold finals in the individual kumite – November 20. First, Halyna Melnyk did not leave any chances to the 2016 world champion Aliza Buchinger from Austria – 3: 0. And then Kateryna Kryva defeated the participant of the 2020 Olympic Games Moldir Zhangbirbay from Kazakhstan – 5: 3.
Anita Seryogina dedicated her final fight against Olympic champion, reigning world and European champion Jovana Prekovic (Serbia). The Ukrainian took the lead, but the opponent managed to snatch the victory – 2: 1. Unfortunately, Anita failed to take revenge on the Serbs for their defeats in the Euro 2021 final and the group tournament in Tokyo 2020. However, her silver achievement set a record for Ukrainian women’s karate at the world championships and allowed the Ukrainian national team to take 11th place in the overall standings of the tournament.
It should also be noted that our Karina Hayrapetyan (coach – a graduate of LDUFK Tetyana Ushakova) won a bronze medal in the category of “executioner in wheelchairs”.
It will be recalled that at the previous four world championships, where the Ukrainian national team played under the auspices of the UFC, in 2012-2018, our athletes won four medals: 2014 (Bremen) – “bronze” Stanislav Goruna (-75 kg) and Irina Zaretskaya (-68) kg), 2016 (Linz) – “bronze” Anita Seryogina (-61 kg), 2018 (Madrid) – “silver” Valery Chobotar (-84 kg).
According to the UFC press service
