One gold and two bronzes

For instance, bronze medals went to Lviv-based Stanislav Horuna in the up-to-75-kilogram category and Iryna Zaretska in the up-to-68-kilogram one, as they defeated in decisive bouts for the third place fighters from Egypt, respectively Omar Abdel Rahman (9:5) and Fatma Mahmoud (4:0). According to the Ukrainian Federation of Karate, this truly historic success for the Ukrainian school of karate is quite natural, since Horuna is our best karateka who became vice-champion of Europe in Tampere (Finland) this year. Meanwhile, Zaretska, who recently turned 18, won the Youth World Cup held in Guadalajara (Spain) in 2013.

Much credit for this achievement should go to karate coaches, including Anton Nikulin (chief national team coach and Horuna’s personal coach) and Denys Morozov (Zaretska’s coach), as well as to the Ukrainian Karate Federation’s leadership, presided over by Serhii Levchuk.

Interestingly, two more Ukrainian athletes were almost able to get bronze medals as well, since Kyivites Vitalii Sementsov and Zhanna Kuzmenko also reached the semi-finals, but lost to their opponents, representing Iran and Germany respectively.

However, Ukrainian Uliana Smyrnova, appearing in the wheelchair karate event (such tournament was held in Bremen for the first time in history), won the first place! Thus, the Ukrainians are returning from the Bremen World Championships with three awards, placing our country 14th in the team standings.

Let us recall that the 22nd World Championships in Bremen, which is taking place under auspices of the WKF (World Karate Federation), involved 900 athletes from around the world who competed for 16 sets of medals. Ukraine was represented by 15 karatekas.