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The inaugural karate competition gets underway at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Here’s everything you need to know about the first day of the Olympic karate competition at Tokyo 2020 on 5 Aug 2021.

Karate

Read our full preview of the first day of karate action at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan. Click here to find out more.

Preview of the first day of the karate events at Tokyo 2020

What’s happening?
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Karate is one of the five new sports making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. The excitement begins at Nippon Budokan, the spiritual home of Japanese traditional martial arts, at 10.00am (local) with the women's kata and men's kumite -67kg elimination rounds.

The evening session (from 5.00pm local) sees action in the women's kumite -55kg elimination round, medal bouts in the women's kata, as well as the semi-finals and finals in the men's kumite -67kg and women’s kumite -55kg classes.

Who should I expect to see?
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A late bloomer once thought of as being too old to compete at the highest level, Spanish world champion Sandra Sanchez is looking to give herself an early 40th birthday present by adding the women’s kata Olympic gold to her numerous honours. A close contest for the title is expected between the Spaniard and Japan's Kiyou Shimizu, and if it is anything like their tiebreaker in the Karate 1 Premier League in 2019, this event will be memorable. Italy’s Viviana Bottaro, and Mo Sheung Grace Lau of Hong Kong, China are also expected to be medal contenders.

In the women's kumite -55kg, the Ukraine’s Anzhelika Terliuga and WEN Tzu-Yun of Chinese Taipei are among the ones to watch. While in the men kumite -67kg category, world champion Steven da Costa of France has produced some impressive results as of late while Egypt’s Ali Elsawy is also a potential winner.

What happened in the Rio 2016 finals?
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Karate is new to the Olympic Games so there are no results from Rio 2016.

"One Minute, One Sport" will show you the rules and highlights of Karate in one minute

Tokyo 2020 | Olympic Games

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One Minute, One Sport | Karate

Competition schedule
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**Date and Time:** Thu 5 Aug. 10:00 - 15:05  
**Venue:** Nippon Budokan

Women's Kata Elimination Round  
Women's Kata Ranking Round  
Men's Kumite -67kg Elimination Round

**Date and Time:** Thu 5 Aug. 17:00 - 21:40  
**Venue:** Nippon Budokan

Women's Kumite -55kg Elimination Round  
Women's Kata Bronze Medal Bouts  
Women's Kata Final Bout  
Men's Kumite -67kg Semi-finals  
Women's Kumite -55kg Semi-finals  
Men's Kumite -67kg Final  
Women's Kumite -55kg Final

Tokyo 2020 karate day 1: Kiyou Shimizu set to shine in kata class on karate’s Olympic debut, and more

Kiyou Shimizu (JPN) at the 2017 Karate 1-Premier League Rotterdam

Kiyou Shimizu (JPN)

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Tokyo 2020 karate day 1: Kiyou Shimizu set to shine in kata class on karate’s Olympic debut, and more

What’s happening?

Who should I expect to see?

What happened in the Rio 2016 finals?

Competition schedule

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