Up-and-coming karatekas surprised with qualification to the finals at the third stop of the 2026 Karate One Premier League in Leshan, China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With points critical in the race for the Grand Winners title, the event is one of the most anticipated tournaments of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Female Kata: Maho Ono to face Grace Lau in classic rematch<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maho Ono of Japan moved into the final with a clear 7-0 win over teammate Hisami Nakaji. On the other side, Grace Lau Mo Sheung of Hong Kong, China, beat Japan\u2019s Kiri Mishima 6-1. The final will repeat one of the sport\u2019s most familiar match-ups. Both athletes showed control and precision, and their rivalry now adds another chapter on one of the biggest stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kumite -60kg: Nuri Kilic returns to final against Hiromu Hashimoto<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nuri Kilic of T\u00fcrkiye secured his place with a strong 16-8 victory over Abdallah Hammad. Hiromu Hashimoto of Japan edged a tight bout against Mekhriddin Turakhonov, winning 3-2. Kilic reaches his second final of the season and looks to go one step further after silver in Istanbul. Hashimoto, a former Grand Winner, aims for a fifth title after missing gold in Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female Kumite -50kg: Cylia Oukine and Yorgelis Salazar on collision course<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cylia Oukine of Algeria defeated Ema Sgardelli 5-1 to book her place in the final. Yorgelis Salazar of Venezuela followed with a 7-3 win over Mizuki Ishihara. Oukine continues her steady rise after podium finishes in Istanbul and Rome and now targets a major title. Salazar, already a winner in Rome, is chasing her eighth Premier League gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kumite -67kg: Abdul Vakhkhob Rashidov reaches first final, meets Luca Maresca<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdul Vakhkhob Rashidov of Uzbekistan claimed a 3-1 win over Olzhas Altynbek to reach his first Premier League final. Luca Maresca of Italy defeated Iurik Oganisian 2-0. Rashidov builds on his bronze from Rome, while Maresca enters his sixth final, still chasing consistency after collecting two bronze medals this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female Kumite -55kg: Valeriya Dimova shocks field, Yuchun Wei lifts home crowd<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Valeriya Dimova of WKF-1 advanced with a narrow 2-1 win over Rezzan Im Zumra. Yuchun Wei of China beat Nejra Sipovic 3-2 to reach the final. Dimova\u2019s run is one of the surprises of the day as she enters her first major final. Wei becomes a local favorite, giving fans a home athlete to support in the title bout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kumite -75kg: Nurkanat Azhikanov and Enes Bulut set final showdown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nurkanat Azhikanov of Kazakhstan defeated Ernest Sharafutdinov 5-3 to return to the final stage. Enes Bulut of T\u00fcrkiye secured his place with a 3-0 win over Andrii Zaplitnyi. Azhikanov aims to reclaim the title he last won in 2022. Bulut, with one previous final, looks to improve on his silver medal from 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Up-and-coming karatekas surprised with qualification to the finals at the third stop of the 2026 Karate One Premier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-11507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-karate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan.jpg",1200,695,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-300x174.jpg",300,174,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-768x445.jpg",640,371,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-1024x593.jpg",640,371,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan.jpg",1200,695,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan.jpg",1200,695,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Karate-One-Leshan.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11509,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11507\/revisions\/11509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}