Meet the new Grand Winners. The class of 2018 of the “Best of the Best” of the Karate 1-Premier League was announced today as this year’s edition of Karate’s first-class series of international events concluded in Tokyo. Heroes of the sport such as Sandra Sanchez, Rafael Aghayev or Ayumi Uekusa were among the top karatekas receiving the recognition. 

Meet the new Grand Winners. The class of 2018 of the “Best of the Best” of the Karate 1-Premier League was announced today as this year’s edition of Karate’s first-class series of international events concluded in Tokyo. Heroes of the sport such as Sandra Sanchez, Rafael Aghayev or Ayumi Uekusa were among the top karatekas receiving the recognition. 

The Grand Winner award distinguishes the best competitors of the season of Karate 1-Premier League. The honour goes to the karatekas leading the standings in each one of the twelve categories at the end of the season; it gives the athletes the right to wear the special karate-gi with the golden embroidery on the shoulders in next year’s edition of the competition. 

Karatekas from seven countries make the class of 2018 of the Grand Winners. Among the new “Best of the Best” are three competitors who celebrate back-to-back titles in the prestigious award. Sandra Sanchez of Spain, Serap Ozcelik of Turkey and Ayumi Uekusa of Japan are the three karatekas who will continue wearing the karate-gi with the golden embroidery next year. 

The list of the 2018 Grand Winners is the following: 

Female Kata: Sandra Sanchez (ESP) Female Kumite -50kg: Serap Ozcelik (TUR)
Female Kumite -55kg: Sara Cardin (ITA) Female Kumite -61kg: Gwendoline Philippe (FRA)
Female Kumite -68kg: Alizee Agier (FRA)
Female Kumite +68kg: Ayumi Uekusa (JPN)
Male Kata: Ryo Kiyuna (JPN) Male Kumite -60kg: Eray Samdan (TUR)
Male Kumite -67kg: Burak Uygur (TUR) Male Kumite -75kg: Rafael Aghayev (AZE)
Male Kumite -84kg: Ugur Aktas (TUR) Male Kumite +84kg: Jonathan Horne (GER)

Turkey lead the 2018 edition of the Grand Winners by countries with four representatives. Japan and France with two representatives respectively also wrap up a successful 2018 edition of the Karate 1-Premier League. The new owners of the “Best of the Best” award will receive the recognition in a special ceremony to be held in January in Paris (France).