The final day of the 2026 Karate One Premier League in Istanbul saw Grand Winners Grace Lau Mo Sheung, Eray Samdan, Abdalla Abdelaziz and Kakeru Nishiyama atop the winners podiums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grace Lau rules Female Kata<\/strong> She claimed her sixth straight win over Ono and added the Istanbul title to the world championship she won in November. Competing as the reigning Grand Winner, \u00a0she opened the season with authority and calm control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eray Samdan shines and bows out in Male Kumite -60 kg<\/strong> Competing at home, Samdan celebrated his debut as a Grand Winner in front of family and friends. Moments later, he surprised the crowd by announcing his retirement from international competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agnes Nyman stuns the field in Female Kumite -50 kg<\/strong> While she had already won two continental underage titles and a silver medal at the 2024 Junior World Championships. In Istanbul, she claimed her first senior title and announced herself at the highest level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Iurik Ogannisian claims breakthrough in Male Kumite -67 kg<\/strong> Bella Samasheva doubles up in Female Kumite -55 kg<\/strong> It was Samasheva\u2019s second Karate One Premier League gold medal. Her previous title also came in T\u00fcrkiye, in Antalya, in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdalla Abdelaziz dominates again in Male Kumite -75 kg<\/strong> The defending Grand Winner and current world champion secured his fourth straight gold medal and confirmed his grip on the category as the current World, continental champion and Grand Winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kata \u2013 Kakeru Nishiyama Stays Untouchable<\/strong> With gold in Istanbul, he claimed his 13th straight international victory, continuing a winning run that has lasted since November 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female Kumite -61 kg \u2013 Fatma Naz Yenen Shines at Home<\/strong> This is her first gold medal at Karate One Premier League, and her best result before Istanbul was silver at the 2023 World Championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kumite -84 kg \u2013 Omar Osman Upsets Grand Winner Badawy<\/strong> Osman is the current continental champion and the defending U21 world champion. He defeated the Grand Winner and tournament favourite with patience and sharp timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female Kumite -68 kg \u2013 Nisrine Brouk Breaks Through<\/strong> This is her first Karate One Premier League title. Before Istanbul, she had reached two finals and finished with silver medals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Male Kumite +84 kg \u2013 Rodrigo Rojas Returns to the Top<\/strong> Rojas is the current continental champion and defeated the defending Grand Winner. This is his first Karate One Premier League title since his win in Fortaleza in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Female Kumite +68 kg \u2013 Sofya Berultseva Claims Long-Awaited Gold<\/strong> The Istanbul title is her first Karate One Premier League gold since Moscow in 2021, marking a strong start to the new season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next stop of Karate\u2019s first-class series of events will be in Rome, Italy, from March 13 to 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The final day of the 2026 Karate One Premier League in Istanbul saw Grand Winners Grace Lau Mo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8410,"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-8408","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\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1.jpg",2003,1127,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1.jpg",2003,1127,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1-590x410.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\/01\/Fatma-Naz-Yenen-of-Turkiye-took-gold-with-a-narrow-4\u20133-win-over-Maryam-Ajaray-of-Belgium1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408","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=8408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8411,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8408\/revisions\/8411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Grace Lau of Hong Kong, China defeated Maho Ono of Japan by a clear 7-0 score. The final confirmed a rivalry that now defines the category. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eray Samdan of T\u00fcrkiye beat Nuri Kilic of T\u00fcrkiye 7-5 in a tense final. The defending world champion showed sharp timing to secure the win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agnes Nyman of Sweden defeated Shara Hubrich of Germany 3-1. At just 18 years old, Nyman produced the biggest upset of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iurik Ogannisian of WKF-1 won 2-0 against Georgios Baliotis of Greece. The match was tight and tactical, with few openings. Ogannisian stayed patient and precise to secure his first Karate One Premier League gold. The win adds momentum to the season of the current European silver medallist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bella Samasheva of Kazakhstan edged Nina Kvasnicova of Slovakia 2-1. The final was close until the last exchanges. Samasheva\u2019s control made the difference in defeating the current World Championships silver medallist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abdalla Abdelaziz of Egypt beat Omer Faruk Yurur of T\u00fcrkiye 5-5 and won the bout by senshu, the first unopposed point. The final was intense until the last seconds, as a late \u2018Yuko\u2019 (1 point) gave Abdelaziz the edge he needed to claim the title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kakeru Nishiyama of Japan won the male kata title after beating fellow Japanese athlete Kazumasa Moto 5\u20132. Nishiyama confirmed his status as the sport\u2019s top reference, since he is the current Grand Winner, world champion, and continental champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fatma Naz Yenen of T\u00fcrkiye took gold with a narrow 4\u20133 win over Maryam Ajaray of Belgium. Competing on home soil, Yenen controlled the bout and held on until the final second. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Omar Osman of Egypt claimed the -84 kg title with a 1\u20130 win over Youssef Badawy of Egypt. One clean Yuko (1 point) decided the final. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nisrine Broukof Morocco won gold after beating Hadir Hendy of Egypt 4\u20132. Brouk stayed active throughout the bout and took control with clear attacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rodrigo Rojas of Chile secured the +84 kg crown with a 4\u20133 victory over Taha Mahmoud of Egypt. A late Yuko (1 point) turned the match in his favour and took him to the top of the podium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sofya Berultseva of Kazakhstan won the +68 kg final 4\u20132 against Arika Gurung of Nepal. Berultseva is the current world championships runner-up and continental champion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n