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
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.