Spain’s Damián Quintero made history on Thursday as he became the first athlete to win a gold medal at all three editions of the European Games to date.
Quintero won the Male Kata division in Karate at both the first Games in Baku in 2015 and the second in Minsk in 2019, and the current European Championship winner followed those successes with another victory at Krakow-Malopolska 2023.
A silver medallist at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Quintero is currently ranked No3 in the world rankings and faced three of the top 20 players in the rankings during the tournament.
In a repeat of the gold medal match from four years ago, his opponent in the final was Turkey’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medal winner, two-time European Champion and current world No8 Ali Sofuoglu.
Quintero beat Sofuoglu at the Bielsko-Biała Arena by a score of 44.60 to 44.10 and the Spaniard was delighted to make Games’ history, as well as to recover from what he thought was a poor performance in his semi-final victory over Mattia Busato from Italy, the silver medallist eight years ago in Baku.
Quintero said: “I have won the three titles in the three editions of the European Games. This means that I was able to maintain consistency all these years and managed to stay on top of the rankings for over a decade.
“I am very pleased with my performance today. Even though I did not feel all that convinced with my kata in the semi-finals, I was able to perform at a good level in the final. This third gold medal is the reward for all the hard work.”
Karate is one of 12 sports to feature in each of the first three editions of the European Games, which were first staged in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2015. The third edition, taking place in Krakow-Malopolska until 2 July, is the first to be held in a member country of the European Union.
