Saudi Arabia’s Olympic silver medalist Tarek Hamdi revived memories of his Tokyo 2020 heroics by winning a gold medal at the Asian Karate Championship in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old won his medal in the Men’s Kumite +84kg category. Saudi athletes also claimed three silver medals on the last day of the 17th edition of the championship for under-21s and adults — and 19th edition for juniors — which took place in Almaty.
Hamdi, who came agonizingly close to winning gold in the +74kg category against Sajag Ganzjadeh of Iran at the Tokyo Olympics in the summer, this time completed the job by defeating another Iranian opponent — Saleh Abazari — 4-0 in the final.
The three silver medals were claimed by Yasser Al-Bargi in the -55kg, Fahad Al-Khathami in the -67kg and Sultan Al-Zahrani in the -75kg.
Earlier in the week at the in the junior categories, Sultan Al-Qahtani led the way for Saudi with gold in the Kumite +55kg competition.
The other triumphant young Saudis were Abdul Rahman Hajjrassi, who won a bronze in the Kumite -76kg; Omar Al-Bakhit, who won bronze in the Kumite +76kg; and Ali Makri, who completed the team’s trio of bronze medals in the Kumite competitions in the -61kg category.