National karate fighters grab medals in Berlin

By Azernews

By Naila Huseynli

Azerbaijani karate fighters won two silvers and one bronze medals in the sixth stage of the season in Berlin which took place on September 14-16.

The Department of Media and Public Affairs of Azerbaijan National Karate Federation says that Rafael Agayev (-75 kg) and Irina Zaretska (-68 kg) took the second place and Firdovsi Farzaliyev (-60 kg) ranked third.

Shahin Atamov (+84 kg) was not rewarded with the referee's mistake in the decisive match for bronze medal.  President of the federation Yashar Bashirov attended the awarding ceremony of athletes.

Karate 1-Premier League tournament of the World Karate Federation (WKF) brought together 763 competitors from 72 countries. After returning from tournament, the national team will start preparations for the competition in Japan.

Moreover, Rafael Agayev, nicknamed “black brilliant of the karate world”, became European champion for the 11th time. The 33-year-old karate fighter won a gold medal at the 53rd EKF Senior Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia, this year.

National karate fighter Irina Zaretska is known for numerous victories at the international area.

Irina managed to achieve very impressive results. She is the owner of the gold medal at the Premier League Karate1 2014 in Almere, bronze at “World Karate Cup 2014”, gold at  the Premier League Karate1 2015 in Istanbul, silver at the Premier League Karate1 2017, etc.

Firdovsi Farzaliyev won gold medal in the Men's Kumite (-60kg) in the Baku 2015 European Games.

The Karate1-Premier League- is the most important league event in the world of Karate. It comprises a number of the most prominent Karate competitions and endeavors to bring together the best Karate athletes in the world in open championships of unprecedented scale and quality.

The 2018 edition of the Karate 1-Premier League is formed by seven events. The tournament has stopped in Paris (France), Dubai (UAE), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Rabat (Morocco), Istanbul (Turkey) and Berlin (Germany). The 2018 season will conclude in Tokyo (Japan) on October 12-14.