Gianella Lozano, gold in the Junior Pan American Games and recent National Champion: “Karate is making a comeback”

Even with the nervous laugh, Gianella lozano enjoy success. The gold medal hangs on her chest and she proudly displays it as a result of her efforts. The 21-year-old Peruvian karate fighter won in the +68 kg category and, in addition, he achieved his classification to the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.

The last friday, Gianella He was in the recognition that the IPD and the COP gave to the medalists and thanked the young people being seen. “There is always something to improve to move forward”, assures and hopes that they can work in the best way to reach the Pan American Games well. “We have more time to train and plan that tournament”He tells us, however, for this he must have the necessary support.

In the national championship that took place over the weekend, Gianella once again demonstrated her conditions and was crowned national champion of the adult category. At 21, he fights anyone.

Rematches

She showed in Cali that she knows how to get up in the face of adversity. In the group stage they finished in third place after losing to Colombia and Brazil – they beat El Salvador and Ecuador -. In the semifinals, her rival was again the Brazilian Rafaella dos Santos and the challenge was to forget what happened on the first day.

“In the qualifying rounds I lost due to overconfidence. I had to reset the cassette, as they say, and I got my revenge ”, he tells us. In the semis he beat Dos Santos and in the final he beat the local Laura Pescador. “The word revenge will always be in the sport, because you don’t always win, we also lose, but that serves as an experience to move forward”, concludes.

It is her first gold medal in the international arena – she had been South American runner-up and third in a Pan-American tournament – but now she celebrates in style. “I couldn’t even sing the hymn, because I was crying,” he says.

The sport

Thus, excited, the girl from Rimac hopes that the karate follow these steps even though the pandemic affected everyone’s training. With Alexandra Grande at the top with her bronze in the World Cup and qualification for the World Games, with the women’s kata team –Saida Salcedo, Sol Romaní and Andrea Almarza– in the semifinals of the World Cup. “Karate is making a comeback, I see everyone very motivated”, says the young karate fighter, who last night competed in the Tacna National Championship.

In Lima 2019, the karate He gave us six medals, two of them gold. In the Junior Pan American Games, the boys did not want to be left behind and returned with four medals, one gold, that of Gianella. The other three were bronze thanks to Kurt García, Nicolás Bouroncle and César Olaya.

Precisely, the first two took the podium in the National Championship that was held in Tacna weekend. Kurt prevailed in the -60kg, while Nicolás was second in the -76kg, where the gold went to Klaus Hurtado. Meanwhile, in say Mariano Wong and Ingrid Aranda championed, in men and women respectively. This discipline with a great past also has a great future.