The 2026 UFAK Championships closed in Algiers after four days of continental karate, with Cadet and Junior champions crowned on the final programme and the official medal table settled. Egypt finished first with 50 medals, including 30 golds. Hosts Algeria took second place with 41 medals and eight golds. Morocco completed the podium with 36 medals and five golds. The World Karate Federation published that closing wrap on 14 September; the competition itself ran from 10 to 13 September under the Union of African Karate Federations and is now concluded.
More than 500 athletes from 29 countries had filled the Algiers tatami from Cadet through Senior. Readers of karate.news already have the senior opening day, the U21 chapter, and the UFAK General Assembly from the same week.
This piece closes the series with the table that matters at the end of a continental championships and with a selective reading of the last day's Cadet and Junior titles — host golds, Egyptian depth, Maghreb answers, and a West African strike that widened the map beyond North Africa alone.
The table that closed Algiers
Egypt's 30 golds inside a haul of 50 medals set the continental tone for the week. Algeria's second place — 41 medals, eight golds — matched the weight of a host federation that stayed on the sheet from the first senior finals through the youngest categories. Morocco's third step — 36 medals, five golds — confirmed a Maghreb podium that needs no embroidery: three North African federations, in that order, when the boards were cleared.
Those numbers are the official close. They do not erase the titles won elsewhere on the continent's map; they frame them. A Senegalese junior gold, Tunisian cadet and junior strikes, Kenyan and South African finalists, Cameroonian and Angolan silver steps — all of that sits inside a week that Egypt dominated in golds while Algeria and Morocco kept the home region on the podium.
Cadet day — Egypt's forms, host and Maghreb replies
The final day opened its youngest board with kata. Egypt's Jana Kassem took Cadet female kata against Algeria's Massila Akkou. Omar Qabl answered in Cadet male kata, defeating Tunisia's Youssef Abbassi. Two Egyptian kata titles before the weight categories even began — a familiar Algiers pattern for anyone who followed the earlier days on karate.news.
In Cadet female kumite, Egypt added again through Jana Mohamed Abdelrehim in the weight category −47 kg, over Morocco's Fatima Azahra Chakir, and through Malak Ragab Hassan in −61 kg, over Kenya's Veronica Njuguna. Morocco struck in −54 kg when Sara El Idrissi beat Kenya's Joy Briteny Achieng. Tunisia claimed the Cadet female 61+ kg crown through Takwa Saidi, who defeated Algeria's Cerine Hocine. Maghreb rivalry, Kenyan finalists, Tunisian gold at the top of the female scale — the Cadet women's board was never a single-nation list.
On the Cadet men's side, the hosts wrote two lines the Coupole crowd will keep. Mohamed Rayene Rahli won the weight category −52 kg against Egypt's Abdelrahim Elzourkany. Rayane Zidelmal took −63 kg over Egypt's Ammar Elsayed. Between those home titles, Tunisia's Mohamedhabib Hammami beat Algeria's Anis Khirat in −57 kg. Egypt closed the heavier Cadet men's categories through Khairy Amer in −70 kg, over Algeria's Mahdi Dai, and Ossama Abdou in 70+ kg, over South Africa's Bryce Tristan Hay. Host golds in the lighter and middle belts; Egyptian golds at the top; Tunisian gold in between — that is the Cadet kumite synthesis without turning the wrap into a catalogue.
Junior day — Egypt again, Algeria's Melissas, Senegal's Cisse
Junior kata followed the same Egyptian lead. Hana Hani Tanib defeated Morocco's Israe El Kahri in Junior female kata. Adam Ellithy took Junior male kata against South Africa's Galliano Boni. Forms golds for Egypt on both Cadet and Junior boards on the closing day — a through-line that helps explain how a federation reaches 30 golds across a full continental week.
Junior female kumite brought the hosts back into the gold light. Melissa Nacef won the weight category −48 kg against Morocco's Jannat El Kbari. Melissa Amezdat followed in −59 kg, defeating Cameroon's Saida Deumeni Kamani. Two Algerian Melissas, two Junior titles under the home roof — that is the host sample that belongs in a closing wrap. Tunisia answered in −53 kg through Mariem Chanoufi, over Egypt's Malak Afifi. Egypt still took the upper Junior women's weights: Nourhan Elmorsi in −66 kg against Morocco's Israe Allouch, and Roaa Eltaher in 66+ kg against Angola's Laury Romano.
Junior male kumite widened the continental story. Senegal's Amadou Cisse defeated Egypt's Mahmoud Tamer Abouarab in the weight category 55 kg — West African gold on a week whose podium was otherwise Maghreb-heavy. Egypt's Mohab Mostafa won −61 kg against South Africa's Brendan Engelbrecht. Mouaz Mostafa claimed gold for Egypt in 68 kg as well; the WKF closing text cuts off before naming the opponent, so that title stands here without a finalist's name attached.
Team kata titles were also decided on the final day. The WKF wrap records that they were awarded, without naming the winning teams on the published page.
What the week leaves
From Cadet to Senior, Algiers hosted a full continental championships under UFAK with more than five hundred athletes and twenty-nine federations on the floor. Egypt's 50 medals and 30 golds are the headline of the official table. Algeria's 41 medals and eight golds are the host answer. Morocco's 36 medals and five golds complete a podium that mirrors the Maghreb's depth across the week. The last day added Cadet and Junior champions in kata and kumite, and closed team kata without needing every final retold.
The competition window of 10–13 September 2026 is closed. The senior day, the U21 day, and the General Assembly already live on karate.news; this closing wrap is the continental ledger — Egypt first, Algeria and Morocco on the steps behind, and a final Cadet and Junior afternoon that still found room for Tunisia, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Cameroon and Angola on the decisive boards.
