DUBAI: When Tarek Hamdi steps onto the mat at the Nippon Budokan arena for his karate men’s kumite +75 kg bout on Saturday morning, he will become the last of ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ’s 33-strong Olympic delegation to take part in Tokyo 2020.
Hamdi, who is 23, will compete in four Pool B matches and his position in the final group table will determine whether he progresses to the semifinals later in the day.
His first match is with Ivan Kvesic of Croatia while his second is with Brian Irr of the US. These will be followed by clashes against Iran’s Sajad Ganjzadeh and, finally, Canada’s Daniel Gaysinsky.
A top-two finish in Pool B will confirm qualification for the semifinals - and a guarantee of at least an Olympic bronze.
The karate kumite competition does not have a bronze medal match for the losing semifinalists, unlike some other Olympic disciplines, with both competitors sharing the honor of third place on the podium.
Hamdi first got into karate in 2009 but it was not until a few years later that he decided to take it up seriously, he said, landing in Tokyo as one of the Saudi delegation’s most decorated athletes.
At the age 15 he won his first medal with ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ, grabbing a gold at the Asian Junior Championships 2013 in Uzbekistan. He followed that up by becoming the first Saudi to win gold in a Karate World Championship, in Jakarta in 2015.
In 2017 everything Hamdi touched turned to gold.
He claimed first place finishes at four tournaments in the 75 kg category: the Asian Championship in Indonesia, the World Cup in Croatia, the U23 Asian Championship and the Asian Senior Championships, both in Kazakhstan. His achievements earned him the title of world most promising karate athlete for the year.
His podium count continued to stack up in 2018 with bronze medals at the World League in Spain, the World Premier League in the UAE and the Asian Games in Jakarta. He also won gold at the Asian Senior Championships 2019 in Uzbekistan.
Hamdi secured qualification to the Olympics with a gold at the Karate Tokyo 2020 Qualifiers that were held in France earlier this year.
