After a day of repechages and ranking rounds, and a final series of round robin matches involving four competitors in male kata, kumite female under-61kg and kumite male under-75kg from which only the top three would get the trip, the second batch of Tokyo qualifiers were established.

Ariel Torres of the United States, Yi-Ta Wang of Chinese Taipei and Heejun Park of South Korea took the big step forward in male kata, with Iran’s Abolfazl Shahrjerdi being the unlucky odd one out.  

The three successful qualifiers in the women’s kumite were Ukraine’s Anita Seragina, Morocco’s Btissim Sadini and Claudymar Garces of Venezuela, with Kazakhstan’s Sabina Zakharova missing out.

Nurkanat Azhikanov of Kazakhstan, Gabor Harspataki of Hungary and Noah Bitsch of Germany got the nod in the men’s kumite under-75kg, with the unlucky fourth man being Jordan’s Bashar Alnajjar.

Twenty-four karateka in all are due to earn the final Olympic places in the qualifier at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin Sports Hall which concludes tomorrow (June 13).