Joco Vasquez pulled off a spectacular performance despite falling short of making into the last rounds of the male individual kata of the 2021 Karate Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Stade Pierre De Coubertin in Paris, France, Saturday.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist zoomed into the lead after four karatekas in the third round with a huge 24.96 in Anan Dai. However, the four athletes that followed pushed him down to fifth place and out of contention into the final rounds.
Vazquez got three 8.2 marks on a technical score and a score of as high as 8.8 in the athletic score to set that mark.
South Korea’s Park Hee Jun topped the group and went into the round-robin after a blistering mark of 27.12
The Filipino earlier finished second in Pool 2 with 23.66 in Round 1. He then followed it up, taking a score of 23.94 in the Round 2 to secure a passage into the next round.
Fil-American karateka Joan Orbon also made her exit in the competition after losing her second round match against Hungary’s Aleksandra Ilankovic, 2-4.
The former three-time PKF national champion earlier impressed in his first round encounter with Cyprus’ Anthea Stylianou, 6-3.
Ivan Agustin completed Team Pilipinas’ campaign for the day, absorbing a sorry 0-1 defeat against Colombia’s Juan Landazuri.
Jamie Lim and Shareef Afif will be left to fight for an Olympics berth on Sunday. The karatekas will compete in women’s plus-61 and men’s plus-75 kg classes, respectively.
Lim will have a tough task as she will face 2016 World champion in women’s -68 kg in Austria’s Alisa Buchinger in the first round. Afif, on the other hand, drew Portuguese Filipe Reis for their first match after both receiving first-round byes.
