Turkish karateka Eray Şamdan brought Turkey its first silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after losing the men’s 67-kilogram kumite final to France’s Steven Da Costa on Thursday.
He moved through to the final after beating Jordan’s Abdel Rahman Almasatfa in the semifinal bout at the Nippon Budokan.
Earlier in the day, the 2019 European champion and 2018 Mediterranean Games bronze medalist, confirmed another Tokyo 2020 Olympics medal for his country by securing a place in the quarters from Pool A.
With the top two athletes from each pool going to the next round, the Turkish karateka beat Azerbaijan’s Firdovsi Farzaliyev 7-1 in the opening match, before losing to Kazakhstan’s Darkhan Assadilov 6-2.
Şamdan then beat Egypt’s Ali Elsawy'i 4-1 in the third match and faced host Japan’s Naoto Sago in the last group tie.
The 24-year-old Turkish athlete beat Sago 2-1 to finish Pool A in second place with six points, which was enough to see him through to the event semifinal.
Karate is making its Olympics debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
