The Peninsula
Spain yesterday clinched gold medals in both men and women kata events at the first ANOC World Beach Games Qatar 2019, after Marcello Guidi and Ana de Jesus Soares sealed first-ever Open Water 5km titles in the history of the competition.
Action at the World Beach Games continued yesterday, with four gold medals being decided on the third day of the six-day event.
With karate set to make debut at the Summer Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo, Japan, the kata event at the World Beach Games drew attention from athletes from different countries. Spain, however, dominated the competition in both men and women events in the last two days.
European champion Sandra Sanchez brought first gold medal for Spain after she defeated Iran’s Fatemah Sadeghi in women’s individual kata final, earning 26.28 points. Sadeghi got 24.60 points.
Spain got their second medal through Damian Quintero, who defeated Yi Wang of Chinese Taepei in the men’s individual kata final, accumalating 26.40 points. Wang fell short with a tally of 24.94 points.
Earlier yesterday, Italy’s Guidi and Brazil’s Soares won gold medals in the Open Water 5km at Katara Beach, making history by becoming first-ever winners of the event at the World beach Games.
Despite an earlier-than-usual start time of 6am., the water temperature still hovered over 30 degrees Celsius at the start of the race, and choppy surf nearly toppled some athletes off the pontoon before the horn. For the 5 Km distance, competitors navigated four laps of a 1.25-kilometre course.
In the men’s race, Germany’s Soeren Meissner swam to the head of the lead pack of about 10 swimmers after one and-a-half laps and led for the majority of the race.
Guidi, who had not won an international event prior to this, sprinted ahead with only 40 metres to go to take gold in a time of 55:25.
As Meissner faltered in the last few metres, Denis Adeev (RUS) was also able to pass the German for silver in 55:26. Meissner, part of the powerhouse German world champion squad in the team event, rounded out the medallists in 55:28.
“It was really hard in the end, and two guys passed me,” Meissner admitted after he emerged from the water. “I was first at the last buoy, but it was so hard for me at the end.” Heavy favourite Kristof Rasoovszky, who won the 2019 World Championships in the 5k by an astonishing 10 seconds, placed 17th.
On the women’s side, Soares, the reigning world champion in the 5k and Pan American champion in the 10k, placed herself in the lead early on and never relinquished it, winning gold in a time of 59:51.
“When you race, you know when you have space,” the Brazilian said. “You feel the touch of others at your feet. Today, I didn’t feel them touching my feet, so I knew I had a little more space for the finish.”
Although the Brazilian felt metres ahead of her competition, China’s Yawen Hou hit the board a second later, with Leonie Beck (GER) in third in 59:53 to add to her bronze in the same distance from the world championships earlier this year.