Karatekata: clean sweep for Japan.

Japan won both the men's and women's individual kata final in the Karate competition this morning at the Qatar Sports Club Indoor Hall. The kata is a series of precise movements that, like wushu's taolu or shadow boxing, imitates the karateka's response to an imaginary attack.

Unlike Chinese taolui, which emphasises fluidity and circular movements, katas emphasise power and straight line attacks.

Judges award competitors on the technical perfection and proper mental and physical posture. At the end of a kata the judges simply hold up either a red or blue flag, indicating who they believe performed the best kata. Whoever gets the vote from the largest number of judges wins.

In the first semifinal, Nguyen Hoang Ngan of Vietnam faced and defeated Sulochana Sijakhwa of Nepal. Nguyen convinced all five judges that her execution was superior. Both competitors were practising the tensho kata of the goju-ryu karate style, or the 'hard and soft way'. In fact most of today's kata competitors practise the goju style, with one or two practicing shotokan, or the 'school of waving pines'.

In the other semifinal, Nao Morooka of Japan received top marks against Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu Chi, doing the same form from the the goju style and again convincing all five judges her form was the better.

In the final, Nguyen's graceful execution was not enough to beat Morooka for gold according to five judges, though Nguyen was hardly convinced.

"I performed perfectly. I tried my best and am satisfied with my performance. I did not lose against the opponent but lost against the referee," she said. "Everyone thinks that Japan is the native country of karate, but now Korea and Japan have tough competition in karate. That's why Japan is trying to get all of the gold medals."

In the men's semifinals, Japan's Tetsuya Furukawa beat Noel Espinosa of the Philippines, again with the tensho form of the goju style, while Ku Jin Keat of Malaysia defeated Shen Chia Hao by a narrow three judges to two, which put him at a disadvantage in the final. In the end, Japan's Furukawa beat Ku in the final, all five judges supporting his effort.

15th Asian Games, Doha 2006