Saturday, 29 August 2026. The first titles of the 2026 PKF Cadet and Junior Championships are on the board in San José, Costa Rica.
WKF published the opening-day report on Friday. Champions were crowned in U12 and U14. Cadet and junior competition is still to come. The championships run through 30 August.
More than 1,000 young athletes from across the continent are in the Costa Rican capital. Our Friday preview set that field at 27 Pan American countries, larger than last year’s Asunción edition.
This is the results follow-up. WKF listed the finals. It did not list scores. It did not list a medal table. Those gaps stay empty.
The WKF report is dated 28 August. Today is Saturday. This dispatch stays on that Friday file: U12 and U14 only.
A Costa Rica kata gold
Fabiola Leon Salas won U12 female kata. She beat Maxime Kemp Huang of the Dominican Republic.
WKF put it plainly: Costa Rica opened its gold-medal account. The first host gold of the meeting came on the kata tatami.
The other three kata titles on opening day went elsewhere.
Gael Hurtado of Colombia won U12 male kata. Lucca Maciel of Brazil took silver.
Summer Zhuo won U14 female kata. Claire Sun, also of the United States, was second.
Andrew Cai won U14 male kata. Kaiden Camacho, again the United States, was second.
Four kata finals. One gold for the host. One for Colombia. Two for the United States, both in U14, both all-American finals.
U12 female kumite
Four weights.
Gabrielli Oliveira of Brazil won -37 kg. The final was all-Brazilian. Valentina Penteado took silver.
Emilia Abigail Pardo Astete of Chile won -42 kg. Javiera Trinidad Inostroza Reyes, also Chile, was second.
Ariadne Alexa Plata Lomar of Bolivia won -47 kg. Sofia Herrera Fuentes, also Bolivia, was second. WKF called it Bolivia’s first U12 female title of the championships.
Ludmila Brito of Brazil won +47 kg. Maria Paula Rivero of Ecuador was second.
Two Brazilian golds. An all-Chilean final. An all-Bolivian final. Four champions from three countries.
U12 male kumite
Noah Nievas of Argentina won -35 kg against Christian Chicaiza of Ecuador.
Arthur Sagilyan of the United States won -40 kg. Kyle Zhang, also USA, took silver. Another all-American final.
Amaro Castro of Chile won -45 kg against German Romero of Argentina.
Arthur Ribeiro of Brazil won +45 kg against Juan Jose Concha Sepulveda of Chile.
WKF framed Ribeiro as completing Brazil’s U12 kumite golds. Oliveira, Brito and Ribeiro are the three Brazilian names at the top of U12 kumite on that list.
Four golds, four flags: Argentina, the United States, Chile, Brazil.
U14 female kumite
Heloisa Lopes of Brazil won -42 kg against Francisca Oyarzun Bahamonde of Chile.
Alexia Sanchez de Leon of Mexico won -47 kg. Andrea Valentina Sanchez Mejia of Costa Rica took silver. That is the host’s other named finalist on opening day, after Leon Salas in kata.
Manuela Jacomel of Brazil won -52 kg against Mia Finegan of the United States.
Victoria Morris-Zutler of the United States won +52 kg against Krisbelth Perea of Ecuador.
Brazil twice. Mexico once. The United States once. Costa Rica on the silver step in -47 kg.
U14 male kumite
Five weights.
Matias Morales of Venezuela won -40 kg against Jorge Mario Nunez of Colombia.
Joel Vanegas of Colombia won -45 kg against Emiliano Manuel Arnez Garcia of Bolivia.
Byron Frias Rosario of Panama won -50 kg against Leonardo Solorzano of Ecuador.
Rene Cortez of Venezuela won -55 kg against Udhay Pranav Ramanujam of Canada.
Lucas Marques of Brazil won +55 kg against Sebastian Castillo of Panama.
Venezuela twice. Colombia, Panama and Brazil once each. Canada’s named result on opening day is Ramanujam’s silver.
Brazil, the USA, and the rest of the list
WKF named Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the United States and several other countries on the top of the podium.
Count the finals it printed. Do not call it a medal table.
Brazil: Oliveira, Brito, Ribeiro, Lopes, Jacomel, Marques. Six golds.
United States: Sagilyan, Morris-Zutler, Zhuo, Cai. Four golds, including both U14 kata titles.
Chile: Pardo Astete and Castro. Two.
Venezuela: Morales and Cortez. Two.
Colombia: Vanegas and Hurtado. Two.
One each, on the same list, for Bolivia (Plata Lomar), Argentina (Nievas), Mexico (Sanchez de Leon), Panama (Frias Rosario) and Costa Rica (Leon Salas).
That is a reading of the finals WKF published. Silvers are named only where WKF named the other finalist. Bronzes are not in the dispatch. karate.news is not adding them.
Through 30 August
The championships continue in San José.
WKF’s event page dates the meeting 27–30 August 2026. Opening day closed U12 and U14. Cadet and junior athletes are still to compete for continental titles. Sunday, 30 August, sits inside the official window.
Competition started Thursday, 27 August, in the frame the preview used. WKF’s opening-day piece is the first official 2026 medal list we have. It is U12 and U14. That is all.
The working tabs on that page remain Main, Entries per nation, Athletes per category, Draws, Schedule, Live, Results, Medals. That is the feed.
Friday’s preview was the field piece: more than 1,000 athletes, 27 countries, no 2026 medals yet. The U12 and U14 titles are now in WKF’s opening-day report. Cadet and junior are not.
No day-two sheet here. No cadet names. No junior names. When WKF publishes the next titles, that will be the next dispatch.
