Taiwan’s Ku Tsui-ping on Saturday won gold at the Asian Karate Championships in Melaka, Malaysia.
Ku — who won silver at the championships in 2021 in Almaty, Kazakhstan — received a bye in the first round of the women’s under-55kg kumite category, before going on a winning streak.
In her first match, she took down China’s Ding Jiamei 9-1.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Taipei Karate Federationsecretary-general Chuang Chih-jen via CNA
In the next bout, which was by far her closest encounter of the tournament, Ku edged Indonesia’s Cok Istri Agung Sanistyarani.
She defeated Iranian Saadati Fateme 4-1 in the semi-final.
In the final, Ku fought Kazakh karateka Gulmira Kairatovna, who she blanked 3-0.
Taiwan coach Teng Shih-yu said that Ku had trained hard in the past few years with her goal set for the Asian Games , which are start on Sept. 23 in Hangzhou, China.
Ku tore her Achilles tendon in 2019, making her recovery and victories in the past few years particularly impressive, Teng said.
The Asian Karate Championships, which started on Friday were held at the Melaka International Trade Centre.
The competition featured more than 500 athletes from 32 countries in kumite and kata events.
As of Saturday, in addition to Ku’s win, Taiwanese Wu Chun-wei and Yu Yan-yi won bronze medals in the men’s under-84kg kumite and women’s over-68kg kumite respectively.
Yesterday was the final day of the tournament.
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