Sport

Seán McCarthy Crean wins karate bronze at Youth Olympic Games

Corkman misses out on gold medal fight after defeat to Moroccan opponent

Ireland’s Seán McCarthy Crean in action against Nabil Ech-Chaabi of Morocco during the men’s kumite +68kg semi-final at the Youth Olympic Games at Oceania Pavilion in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photograph: Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images
Ireland’s Seán McCarthy Crean in action against Nabil Ech-Chaabi of Morocco during the men’s kumite +68kg semi-final at the Youth Olympic Games at Oceania Pavilion in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photograph: Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images
Thu Oct 18 2018 - 20:53

Ireland’s Seán McCarthy Crean won a bronze medal in karate at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires on Thursday.

Competing in the men's Kumite +68kg category, the Corkman qualified for the semi-finals by defeating Japan's Keisei Sakiyama and Slovakia's Tomas Kosa in the elimination rounds. In the semi-final he was denied a fight for gold by Moroccan Nabil Ech-Chaabi, in a 2-1 defeat.

Disappointed to miss out on gold, the McCarthy Crean said: “I just lost it, it’s disappointing, but I’ll watch it back and figure out how to fix it the next time.

“I was trying to test him out to figure out what he was going to do but my attack was out of distance and it went past, I should have been more precise with it but it’s grand. I’ll fix it next time.”