Greek athlete Konstantinos Mastrogiannis won the gold medal in the 59th European Karate Championship held in Zadar, Croatia.

Mastrogiannis surged to victory in the 84kg Kumite category after defeating Dutchman Brian Timmerman with a final score of 7-2 and celebrated first place and winning the gold medal.

The 23-year-old champion of Doxa Galatsiou had caused a legendary upset in the semi-final to get through to the gold medal match, but in his final fight of the tournament, he reportedly came by an easy victory to be named European champion in his category.

Greece also won three medals at the 2020 European Karate Junior and Cadet and U21 Championships in Hungary, where Mastrogiannis also took home a gold medal.

He defeated France’s Raybak Abdesselem in the final of the U21 Kumite Male 84 kg event. The two bronze medals in that category went to Croatia’s Renato Resetar and Ukraine’s Andrii Zaplitnyi.

Greek Stefanos Xenos won silver for Greece in the U21 Kumite Male 60 kg, where he was the defending world and European karate champion for his age group. Gold went to Turkey’s Omer Faruk Ates, while the two bronze medals were awarded to Russia’s Ilia Savin, and France’s Enzo Berthon.

Also winning silver for Greece was Antonia Moysidou, doing so in the Junior Kata Female category. Gold went to Italy’s Matilde Galassi, and the two bronze medals were won by Belgium’s Younmi Novo, and Hungary’s Zsofia Kiss.

With these three medals, Greece finished tied for tenth place with Romania in the overall medal table. The top three spots were occupied by Turkey, France, and Azerbaijan.

Greece also had four seventh-place finishes in Budapest. Coming in seventh place were Margarita Baltzi (Junior Kumite Female 48 kg), Georgia Chatziliadou (U21 Kumite Female 68+ kg), Ioannis Koukouselis (Cadet Kata Male), and Ioannis Simosis (Junior Kumite Male 68 kg).

Another Greek Karate Gold Medalist

Last year Greek Stefanos Xenos won the gold medal in the men’s kumite 60 kg event at the 2023 World Karate Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. The 22-year-old athlete beat Kaisar Alpysbay of Kazakhstan in the final to win the gold, recording the greatest honor of his career.

The Greek fighter was the aggressor in the final and wrapped up a 7-1 triumph.
In his brief career until now, Xenos has already won several medals in international competitions. In 2021 he won the gold medal in the category of U21 Male Kumite -60kg, during the Under 21 Karate World Championship.

In May 2021, Xenos won one of the bronze medals in the men’s kumite 60 kg event at the European Karate Championships held in Poreč, Croatia.

In June 2021, he competed at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Paris, France hoping to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. That same year, Xenos also competed in the men’s 60 kg event at the 2021 World Karate Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Source: Greekreporter.com