Karate player Tariq Hamdi gives Saudi Arabia the second silver in its history at the Olympics

Saudi karate player Tariq Hamdi was on his way to gift his country the first gold medal in its history, but he made a technical mistake in the final when the confrontation was within his reach, to be satisfied with silver in the +75 kg weight Saturday at the Tokyo Olympics.

Hamdi, 23, lost the final match against Iranian Sajjad Ganjzadeh after he committed a technical error "Hansouko" when he was 4-1 ahead of his opponent.

This is Saudi Arabia's second silver in its history after runner Hadi Sawan in the 400m hurdles at the Sydney 2000 Games.

Hamdi was heading to collect the gold, when he kicked his opponent and knocked him to the ground.

After the referees consulted among themselves, they decided to exclude Hamidi and award the gold to the Iranian player.

On his way to the final, Hamdi scored two wins, a draw and a loss in the group stage.

He started his participation in a loss against the 2018 world champion Croatian Ivan Kvicic 2-3, before beating the American Brian Air 4-1, and tied with the Iranian with the 2016 world champion in the weight of +84 kg Sajjad Ganjzadeh zero-0, then beat the Canadian Daniel Gaisinsky 10 -3.

Hamdi (5 points) came second in his group behind Kangzadeh (7 points), to beat in the semi-finals Japanese Ryotaro Agata (30 years), the 2016 world champion in the weight -84 kg and a three-time winner in the first round with a score of 2-0.

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