Hong Kong karate star Grace Lau Mo-sheung won bronze in the individual kata event, the second bronze medal for Hong Kong today.
Competing against Dilara Bozan of Turkey, Lau earned a total of 26.94 with her routine, 0.42 points more than her Turkish rival.
“Both the competition and the medal means a lot to me,” she said in the post-competition interview, adding she did not expect a chance to compete in the Olympics when she first started practicing as karate was never included.
Karate is a new addition to Tokyo 2020, but will not remain in Paris 2024.
A total of ten karatekas are competing in the women’s kata — means “form” in Japanese — at the Nippon Budokan arena — the spiritual home of Japanese martial arts and a legacy venue from the Tokyo Games 1964.
Competitors will have to perform three-minute routines which demonstrate offensive and defensive techniques against a virtual opponent. The techniques are chosen from 102 forms with esoteric-sounding names like Chatanyara Kushanku and Suparinpei that they yell out before they begin.
A point-based system was adopted. Seven judges on the panel will give scores according to the athlete’s athletic and technical performances on a scale from 5.0 to 10.0.
The two highest and two lowest scores will be excluded and the remaining three scores are then added and applied to a separate calculation formula to determine the winner.
Lau expressed gratitude towards her family in the interview, thanking them for being supportive of her decision in becoming a full-time athlete.
The Hong Kong karateka began learning karate because of her older brother.
Since competing in international competitions at the age of 16, Lau has been winning many medals, including a bronze medal in the Women's Kata event at the WKF Senior World Championships in 2018.
After her win in the Olympics, Lau aims to snatch another medal at November’s World Championships.
