One of the biggest stars of today's Karate: Kiyou Shimizu
The final of the day featuring Spanish and Japanese karatekas also finished with the victory of the representatives of the birth nation of the sport. Kiyou Shimizu defeated Sandra Sanchez in Female Kata and claimed her eleventh gold medal in eleven international appearances. At only 23 years old, Shimizu is two-time world champion and has never lost a single bout in nearly six years of international career. Ever since her debut at the World Junior, Cadet & U21 Championships in 2011, Shimizu has always claimed gold in all eleven international appearances. This tally of awards confirms her status of one of the biggest stars of today's Karate and one of the stars of Karate in the Olympic debut of the sport at her home-town of Tokyo in 2020.
Gymnastics: A Men's Pairs shocker
Men's Pair Michail Kraft and Tim Sebastian upset the World champions to capture Germany's first ever gold medal in Acrobatic Gymnastics at The World Games Tuesday. At the World level, Russia has reigned uninterrupted in Acrobatic Men's Pairs for the past five years. Germany, meanwhile, achieved its last Acro medal at The World Games back in 1993. That made Michail Kraft and Tim Sebastian's dethroning of 2016 World champions Igor Mishev and Nikolay Suprunov even more dramatic: when the results were announced, nobody in Centennial Hall was more surprised to have relegated the Russians to second than Kraft and Sebastian themselves. The German victory was in part due to their superior Execution score, which carries increased importance under the new rules in Acrobatic Gymnastics.
Squash: Go for (fourth) Gold
Malaysia's eight-time world champion Nicol David is bidding to win a record fourth gold medal in the women's event. David won gold in the 2005 Games in Duisburg, Germany, then the 2009 event in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei, before retaining the title in the Cali Games in 2013. The 33-year-old from Penang, who topped the world rankings for an unprecedented 112 months until August 2015, is the No.2 seed - and expected to renew her career-long rivalry with 28-year-old French favourite Camille Serme, the world No.3, in the final. Medal matches on Friday, 16 CET.
