The second medal of the Spanish karate was silver.
24 hours after the gold platy of Sandra Sánchez, Damián Quintero could not beat the local Ryo Kiyuna in the great ending at Nippon Budokan.
The judges, who granted a note from 27.66 to Spanish in their final kata (28.72 to the rival of it), promoted Japanese vengener on the tatami.
Even so, the Kárate will already remain forever in the history of Spanish Olimpism.
In its fleeting presence in games – it was its premiere and disappears the program in Paris 2024-, the martial art that was born on Okinawa Island in the 14th century leaves two medals.
In the afternoon session, Quintero opted for the Suparinpei.
Following the ritual of him, he squeezed his feet back against the tatami, “like a bull,” and he executed him with the usual solvency of him, “putting the heart” and brushing technical perfection.
Next, Kiyuna opted for Ohan Dai, obtaining a very high score (20.02 in the technical part and 8.70 in physics).
The malagueño born in Buenos Aires, who left his engineer’s work to pursue his dream, had shown his solvency in the ranking round.
He went as a first group, very prominent from the rest, after the first two attempts (27.34 of average note).
Afterwards, at the time of the third truth, he chose the Anan Dai – the same as his two rivals, had to overcome the 26.44 of the American Ariel Torres, and he executed him with his usual plasticity, putting, as he likes to say,
“The heart” on the tatami of the budokan.
He broke for joy, in the embrace with the Jesús del Morale guru, after knowing his note (27.28), directly to the final.
“I want gold, I’m going to fight for it, not many karatekas can say that they have a medal, and I already have it,” Damián had warned.
World Champion in 2014, six times Champion of Europe and number one of the ranking, at 37, Damián could not defeat his great rival, the local idol Kiyuna, tetracampeon of the world.
It is the 14th Medal of the Spanish Delegation in Tokyo 2020.
