Paris (AFP)
Frenchwoman Alexandra Feracci qualified for the karate "kata" event of the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8), taking one of the first three places in the qualifying tournament in Paris on Friday at Coubertin.
Karate will enter the Olympic program in Tokyo, with four disciplines for women (kata, -55 kg, -61 kg, +61 kg) and four for men (kata, -67 kg, -75kg, +75 kg).
This will be the only appearance of karate at the Games, since it was not included in the list of additional sports for the Olympics-2024 in Paris.
Friday in kata, Feracci won in the final group four against Iranian Fatemeh Sadeghi Dastak and Germany's Jasmin Jüttner, and lost against Turkey's Dilara Bozan.
With this second place, she qualified for Tokyo, and joined Steven Da Costa (-67 kg), who was until then the only French qualified.
On the other hand, Alexandra Recchia lost in the quarterfinals in the -55 kg category and will not go to Tokyo.
Five other French people will try Saturday and Sunday to secure their tickets for the Games: Leila Heurtault (-61 kg), Alizée Agier (+61 kg), Logan Da Costa (-75 kg), Farouk Abdesselem (+75 kg) and Jonathan Maruani (kata).
They will have to take one of the top three places in their category to go to Japan this summer.
© 2021 AFP