Grace Lau (second left, back) in Morocco at the K1 event.
Source:
https://scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/3177814/hong-kongs-grace-lau-looks-win-first-kata-gold-medal-2022-wkf Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s Grace Lau looks to win first kata gold medal of 2022 at WKF Karate 1 Premier League final in Morocco
- Olympic bronze medallist will face Japan’s Hikaru Ono – the reigning Asian champion and World Championship runner-up – in Sunday night’s final
- ‘I am pleased to see my progress on both the physical and technical fronts,’ says Lau, who is ‘overjoyed’ to make Rabat final again
Grace Lau is pleased with her performance in Rabat and hopes to add a gold medal today. Photos: World Karate Federation
Hong Kong’s Grace Lau Mo-sheung has qualified for her second WKF Karate 1 Premier League final in the space of three weeks, as she looks to capture her first kata gold medal of the year.
Hong Kong’s Olympic bronze medallist will face Japan’s Hikaru Ono – the reigning Asian champion and World Championship runner-up – in Sunday night’s final in Rabat, Morocco.
Since the Tokyo Games last August, Lau has collected further bronze medals at the Worlds in November, the Asian Championships in December, and in the first leg of the Premier League in Fujairah, as well as a silver in the League’s second leg in Portugal on April 24.
With the absence in the Moroccan capital of Olympic gold medallist Sandra Sanchez of Spain and silver medallist Kiyou Shimizu, world No 2 Ono and No 4 Lau have taken full advantage.
“I was overjoyed to make the final again, but even happier to find out that even though I only had less than three weeks to recover from the last event, I could still keep my form,” said Lau, who won the K1 title in Rabat four years ago.
The 30-year-old outscored two opponents – one from Spain and one from Italy – in her pool stage and advanced to the quarter-finals, where she beat Raquel Roy Rubio of Spain 25.28-24.34, before defeating Natsuki Shimizu of Japan by a slim margin of 25.68-25.48 in the semis.
“I am pleased to see my progress on both the physical and technical fronts; I was more satisfied with my performance in this event than in the previous one,” Lau added.
She will hope to exact revenge on Ono, who defeated her in the semi-finals of the first leg of the K1 in Fujairah in February. Ono, who is also chasing her first gold medal of the year, beat Japanese teammate Maho Ono, 25.80-25.54.
Lau has been training in Miami since last October, repeating the same routine as before the Olympics, under the guidance of Robert Young and alongside training partner Ariel Torres, the Olympic bronze medallist in men’s individual kata.
She began practising new skills last December, which she credits with increasing her motivation.
“The more competitions I took part in, the more I became accustomed to the new skills and my results thus far have proven that it is worthwhile to train in the United States,” Lau said.