The city of Salzburg hosted this past weekend the thrilling fifth tournament of the 2016 Karate 1-Premier League. The first class international Karate event reached the halfway of the competitions scheduled for this year, as five of the ten tournaments have already captured the attention of Karate fans around the world.

The 2016 Karate 1-Premier League reached the halfway of the competitions scheduled for this year with the celebration this past weekend of the thrilling event in Salzburg. Five of the ten tournaments of the season have already captured the attention of Karate fans around the world in a spectacular showdown of the sport.

Karate Stars caused a sensation in Salzburg in the anticipated quest for glory, thus stating their domination in the competition. Following the tournaments in Paris (France), Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Dubai (UAE) and the event celebrated this past weekend in the Austrian city, top favourites have made an impact with impressive victories so to become household names in their respective categories.

This is the case of Japanese stars Kiyou Shimizu and Ryutaro Araga who have reached the top of the podium in two events in Female Kata and Male Kumite -84kg respectively. The same tally was clinched by Spain’s Damian Quintero in Male Kata and Sandra Sanchez in Female Kata, while Greece’s Vassiliki Panetsidou have so far earned two golds in Female Kumite -68kg. Ahead of the upcoming Karate European Championships at home ground, France’s fan favourite Alexandra Recchia has also achieved two gold medals in Female Kumite -50kg.

This is the list of winners of the events in 2016 Karate 1-Premier League by categories.

Female Kata
Paris: Kiyou Shimizu (JPN)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Sandra Sanchez (ESP)
Rotterdam: Emiri Iwamoto (JPN)
Dubai: Sandra Sanchez (ESP)
Salzburg: Kiyou Shimizu (JPN)

Female Kumite -50 Kg
Paris: Alexandra Recchia (FRA)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Areeg Rashed (EGY)
Rotterdam: Alexandra Recchia (FRA)
Dubai: Bettina Plank (AUT)
Salzburg: Ayaka Tadano (JPN)

Female Kumite -55 Kg
Paris: Cristina Ferrer (ESP)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Aya Shaaban (EGY)
Rotterdam: Jennifer Warling (LUX)
Dubai: Syakilla Salni Jefry Krishnan (MAL)
Salzburg: Valeria Kumizaki (BRA)

Female Kumite -61 Kg
Paris: Merve Coban (TUR)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Giana Lofty (EGY)
Rotterdam: Lucie Ignace (FRA)
Dubai: Giana Mohamed Farouk (EGY)
Salzburg: Alexandra Grande (PER)

Female Kumite -68 Kg
Paris: Vassiliki Panetsidou (GRE)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Cristina Vizcaino (ESP)
Rotterdam: Vassiliki Panetsidou (GRE)
Dubai: Silvia Semeraro (ITA)
Salzburg: Alisa Buchinget (AUT)

Female Kumite 68+ Kg
Paris: Anne Laure Florentin (FRA)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Anastasiya Stepashko (UKR)
Rotterdam: Vanesca Tania Nortan (NED)
Dubai: Fanny Clavien (SUI)
Salzburg: Ayumi Uekusa (JPN)

Male Kata
Paris: Ryo Kiyuna (JPN)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Francisco Jose Salazar (ESP)
Rotterdam: Damian Quintero (ESP)
Dubai: Damian Quintero (ESP)
Salzburg: Antonio Diaz (VEN)

Male Kumite -60 Kg
Paris: Ihor Uhnich (UKR)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Abdulhadi Almalki (KSA)
Rotterdam:  Geoffrey Berens (NED)
Dubai: Angelo Crescenzo (ITA)
Salzburg: Marko Antic (SRB)

Male Kumite -67 Kg
Paris: Saeid Ahmadikaryani (IRI)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Bashar Alnajjar (JOR)
Rotterdam: Assylbek Muratov (KAZ)
Dubai: Ali Elsawy (EGY)
Salzburg: Vinicius Figueira (BRA)

Male Kumite -75 Kg
Paris: Thomas Scott (USA)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Omar Abdel Rahman (EGY)
Rotterdam: Erman Eltemur (TUR)
Dubai: Rafael Aghayev (AZE)
Salzburg: Daisuke Watanabe (JPN)

Male Kumite -84 Kg
Paris: Ryutaro Araga (JPN)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Abdalla Ibrahim (EGY)
Rotterdam: Timothy Petersen (NED)
Dubai: Ugur Aktas (TUR)
Salzburg: Ryutaro Araga (JPN)

Male Kumite 84+ Kg
Paris: Enes Erkan (TUR)
Sharm El-Sheikh: Achraf Ouchen (MOR)
Rotterdam: Ridvan Kaptan (TUR)
Dubai: Ahmed Said (UAE)
Salzburg: Slobodan Bitevic (SRB)