A final stop in the Alps
The 2026 Karate 1 Series A season came to a close in Salzburg, where more than 1,200 athletes from 82 countries gathered at the Sporthalle Alpenstrasse from 2 to 4 October for the last event of the year in the World Karate Federation's global league. The Austrian city offered a fitting stage for a finale: three days on the tatami, fourteen titles, and a medal table that, by Sunday evening, carried Japan's name at the top with four gold medals and three bronze.
The opening day had already set the tone, with Ria Hori and Yosuke Abe winning for Japan, Sayed Salman Almosawi taking the male kata title for Kuwait and Lucija Lesjak claiming the female +68 kg category for Croatia. What followed over the weekend was broader and often closer, as ten more champions from eight different countries climbed to the top step of the podium.
Saturday: the lightest weight categories
On Saturday, the lightest fighters shared the stage with the team kata specialists. In the female −50 kg category, Romania's Patricia Nastas produced the most emphatic final of the weekend, shutting out Ukraine's Daria Pylypiuk 8-0. Bronze went to Italy's Ludovica Legittimo and to Veronika Gashnikova, who competed under the WKF flag.
Slovakia's Nina Kvasnicova needed more patience at −55 kg. She beat Venezuela's Yorgelis Salazar 4-2 in a closely fought final, while Italy's Veronica Brunori, an 8-0 winner over her compatriot Alessandra Mangiacapra in the bronze bout, and Japan's Ako Matsumura completed the podium.
The men's finals were tighter still. France's Sami Tas edged Algeria's Mohamed Anis Saadi 4-3 at −60 kg, a single point separating gold from silver, with Chile's Matias Quijada Pelayo and Scotland's Adam Hamill taking bronze. At −67 kg the margin shrank to its absolute minimum: Japan's Taiki Kataoka beat Ukraine's Nazarii Prannychuk 1-0, one lone score deciding the title. Türkiye placed two men on the third step of the podium, Ekrem Altuner Yilmaz and Kagan Aslan, the latter after a lively 11-7 bronze bout against Belgium's Hamza Jaber-Rais.
Team kata: Kuwait's authority, Chinese Taipei's nerve
The team kata finals brought a change of rhythm, from the bursts of kumite to the measured synchrony of a trio moving as one. Kuwait, with Sayed Mohammed Almosawi, Sayed Salman Almosawi, Saqr Aldbasi and Mohammad Hussain on its roster, swept the male final 5-0 against the Italian club C.T.R. Campania, both teams performing Unsu. For Sayed Salman Almosawi, already crowned in individual kata on Friday, it was a second gold of the weekend. Japan's Waseda University and Italy's national team took bronze.
The female final was a far closer affair. Chinese Taipei, represented by Chien Hui-Hsuan, Hung Chih-Hsuan and Tien Hsin-Erh, chose Ohan and prevailed 3-2 over France, whose trio of Mai-Linh Bui, Lea Severan and Louise Capet answered with Unsu. Hong Kong, China and Italy completed the podium.
Sunday: the middle weight categories
Sunday's programme was devoted to the middle weight categories, and it opened up the map even further. France found a second champion in Monica Arzumian, who had reached the final with a 9-0 semi-final win over Anna Rodina, competing under the WKF flag, and then controlled the female −61 kg final 5-1 against Germany's Mia Bitsch; Germany also collected bronze through Anastasiia Semenenko, alongside Japan's Suzue Hashimoto. At −68 kg, Azerbaijan's Iryna Zaretska won a tense, low-scoring final 2-1 against Guinea's Anne-Coralie Keita, while Spain's Júlia Just Clopes and Kosovo's Behije Mustafa earned bronze.
Riku Tsuruta then delivered Japan's fourth gold of the event in the male −75 kg category. His path to the title ran through an 8-8 semi-final against Belgium's Quentin Mahauden, and the final proved just as open: Tsuruta won it 6-5 against Armenia's Suren Harutyunyan, who had come through his own semi-final against Kazakhstan's Maxim Moskvichyov 2-1. Mahauden recovered to take bronze, as did Spain's Izan Martin Pena.
The last final of the season was an all-Ukrainian affair. At −84 kg, Stanislav Horuna, who had beaten Senegal's Makhtar Diop 5-0 in the semi-finals, met compatriot Valerii Sonnykh, an 8-2 winner over Algeria's Mohammed El Amin Djemiat, and in a bout that ended 0-0 on the scoreboard, it was Horuna who took the gold. Ukraine's Andrii Toroshanko and Diop completed the podium, leaving Ukraine with three of the four medals in the category.
The balance sheet, and the road to Bielsko-Biała
Japan's four titles, spread across kata and kumite and across all three days, made it the clear leader in Salzburg. France followed with two gold, two silver and one bronze, its champions Tas and Arzumian offset by narrow defeats in the team kata final and in the female +68 kg final on Friday. Kuwait matched the French tally of titles with its two kata golds, while Ukraine, with one gold and four silver medals, reached more finals than any other nation without always converting them. Italy left with one silver and five bronze, and host nation Austria with one bronze.
Beyond the table, the weekend confirmed the reach of the circuit: Romania, Slovakia, Chinese Taipei and Azerbaijan all celebrated a champion, and athletes from Guinea, Armenia, Venezuela, Algeria, Kosovo and Senegal stood on the podium. With the senior Series A calendar now complete, the spotlight shifts to the next generation, as the World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships take over in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, from 14 to 18 October 2026.
Sources
- WKF, "New Champions Crowned on Day Two of Karate One Series A Salzburg": https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3320/new-champions-crowned-on-day-two-of-karate-one-series-a-salzburg
- WKF, "Four Champions Crowned on Day One of Karate One Series A Salzburg": https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3319/four-champions-crowned-on-day-one-of-karate-one-series-a-salzburg
- WKF, "All You Need to Know About Karate One Series A Salzburg": https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3314/all-you-need-to-know-about-karate-one-series-a-salzburg
- WKF, 2026 Karate One Series A Salzburg event page (results, draws and medals): https://www.wkf.net/karate-one/championship/!/442/2026-karate-one-series-a-salzburg
- WKF, Series A Salzburg 2026 bulletin: https://www.wkf.net/files/pdf/championships/Bulletin_Series_A_Salzburg_2026.pdf
- WKF, 2026 World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships Bielsko-Biała: https://www.wkf.net/world-championships/championship/!/443/2026-world-cadet-junior-u21-championships-bielsko-biala
Photo: wkf.net
