• The 26-year-old from Cairo now faces Xiaoyan Yin of China Women’s Kumite -61kg category with the guarantee of at least a bronze medal

Ali Khaled

DUBAI: Giana Lotfy of Egypt has lost the semi-final of the Women’s Kumite -61kg in the Olympic Karate competition but still walked away with a bronze medal after an agonisingly close defeat to Xiaoyan Yin of China of China at Nippon Budokan Arena on Friday afternoon.

The 26-year-old from Cairo lost the tie after the judges’s awarded the win to her opponent after the match finished 1-1.

Xiaoyan Yin later lost the final against Jovana Prekovic of Serbia, who had beaten Merve Coban of Turkey in the other semifinal.

Lotfy’s was the first ever bronze medal handed out for the Women’s Kumite -61kg, with Karate only making its Olympic Games debut at Tokyo 2020.

Unlike in some other Olympic disciplines, the Karate Kumite competition does not have a bronze medal match for the semi-final losers, with both sharing the honor of third place on the podium.

Lotfy had started the Women’s Kumite -61kg Pool B by beating Alexandra Vanessa Grande Risco of Peru 2-0 in her first match early on Friday morning and followed that up with another tight 2-1 win over Anita Serogina of Ukraine.

Lotfy was then completely dominant in her 5-0 win over the Moroccan Btissam Sadini. The final Pool match against eventual gold medalist Prekovic finished 1-1, with the win awarded via senshu for the Serbian.

The results were enough to see her qualify from Pool B to for Friday afternoon’s semi-final, and secure a bronze for Egypt.