Park Heejun Advances to Karate Kata Bronze Medal Match

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Park Hee-jun (27) advanced to the 'bronze medal match' in men's kata karate, which became an official Olympic event for the first time.

On the morning of the 6th, Park Hee-jun secured the last ticket to the ranking match by finishing 3rd in Group A of the men's kata preliminaries at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics held at the Nippon Budokan in Japan. Although he failed to advance directly to the final in the ranking match, he earned a chance to compete for the bronze medal.

In the preliminaries, Park chose the Papuren kata for his first performance, scoring 17.92 in technique and 7.80 in athletic performance, totaling 25.72 points. For his second performance, he selected Ohndaidai, recording 17.78 in technique and 7.74 in athletic performance, totaling 25.52 points.

With an average score of 25.62 points, Park ranked 3rd behind Damian Quintero (Spain, average 27.37 points) and Guti?rrez Torres (USA, average 26.91 points).

In Tokyo Olympic karate, the top three out of five competitors in each group preliminary round advance to the ranking matches. The winner of the ranking match among the three competitors advances directly to the final, while the other two compete in the bronze medal match.

In the ranking match, Park performed the Anan kata and scored 25.98 points (technique 18.06, athletic performance 7.92). Torres (26.46 points) and Quintero (27.28 points) scored higher, so Park failed to advance to the final.

Kata in karate is a competition where athletes perform a predetermined series of movements against an imaginary opponent, judged on how accurately, quickly, and powerfully they execute the techniques.

Park Hee-jun will challenge for the bronze medal at 7:30 PM at the Budokan.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.