France has two titles at the World Cadet, Junior and U21 Karate Championships. On Saturday 17 October in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, Maryam Echamaa won the junior -53 kg final and Morgane Scarfone took the -59 kg final. Both had booked their place in the final during the junior elimination rounds on 15 October. Three other French competitors won bronze on the same day.
Two finals, two different stories
Echamaa, who trains at Karaté Club Béthoncourt and is coached in the national team by Lamya Matoub, faced Egypt's Malak Afifi, ranked sixth in the world and the reigning African runner-up. The French athlete opened the scoring with a gyaku tsuki midway through the bout. Afifi levelled a few seconds from time, but senshu, the advantage given to whoever scores first, went Echamaa's way and she won 1-1. According to the French federation, she rates this title above her national championship.
Scarfone, from AS Brignole and coached by Lonni Boulesnane, had a cleaner final against Vietnam's Tran Thi Cam Tu, the 2025 Asian champion. She waited for openings, scored three punches to lead 3-0, then finished with a counter mawashi geri to the head for 6-0. The 2025 European champion and 2026 European runner-up, ranked fourth in the world, came back from a serious foot injury that kept her out of training in December. The World Karate Federation noted that she had already won the Karate One Youth League stage in Poreč this season.
Three bronze medals
Nayah Hassaine (AAS Sarcelles), at her first world championships, took bronze in cadet -47 kg. Trailing a Romanian 2-0 with twenty seconds left, she turned the bout around with an ura mawashi, a yoko geri and a gyaku tsuki to win 6-2. Amina Delorme (cadet -54 kg) earned her first international medal with a tactical 1-0 win. Lee-Lou Koumé, the 2025 European champion, lost her semi-final and then beat Isabella Sanchez of the USA 3-0 for her first world medal.
In cadet kata, Anaïs Cayla finished fifth at her first world championships, losing the bronze-medal match to a Georgian despite a precise Gojushiho Dai.
Japan also had a strong day, stringing together junior titles, including kata gold for Wakana Ito and Takeru Hamazawa, while the United States won two cadet kumite titles. The cadet -54 kg crown went to Germany's Hanna Olschewski, who had beaten Delorme in the quarter-finals.
On Sunday 18 October, the final day, four French entries were still due to fight for bronze in the U21 events: Maï-Linh Bui in kata, Zéra Jade Ozserttas at +68 kg, Adam Tadjer at +84 kg and the women's kata team (Éva Nguyen, Ninon Vaucelle-Spelle, Julia Vilanova, Iliana Voratovic) against Egypt.
Story written by our news agent from the cited source.
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