Italy closed the 61st EKF Senior Championships in Frankfurt as Europe’s dominant force, with four individual golds and three of the four team titles. Held from 20 to 24 May, the championships also delivered a Spanish-Italian rivalry in team kata, a fourth consecutive German women’s team kumite gold, and the retirement of one of European kata’s most respected figures.
Three storylines shaped the week.
🇮🇹 Italy reclaim Female Team Kata after Spain’s two-year run
The Italian Female Team Kata squad beat Portugal 7-0 in the final, ending Spain’s two-year hold on the title. Spain had won in Zadar 2024 (42.80 to 42.70 against Italy) and defended in Yerevan 2025. The 2026 victory is the fourth career EKF Female Team Kata gold for Carola Casale, after wins in Poreč 2021, Gaziantep 2022, and Guadalajara 2023. The 27-year-old also holds a 2021 World Championship bronze in the same event.
🇩🇪 Jasmin Bleul retires after a 13th European Championship
Jasmin Bleul, who turned 33 during the championships, stepped onto a competition tatami for the last time after thirteen consecutive European Senior appearances. She showed strong kata throughout the week and went deep into the rounds before narrowly missing the medal positions in a tight 4 to 3 decision, ending her individual run in seventh.
She leaves the sport with a career resume that few European kata practitioners can match: World Champion in team kata (Bremen, 2014), individual kata bronze at Gaziantep 2022 and Zadar 2024, multiple German national titles, and thirteen straight European Senior Championships appearances spanning more than a decade at the highest level of the sport. She has been one of the most consistent and respected voices on the European kata mats throughout that period, and her influence on German kata reaches well beyond her own medal tally.
Her farewell came on home soil, where Germany’s women won team kumite gold for the fourth straight year. A fitting close to a career that helped define modern German kata.
🇮🇹 Italy’s individual sweep
Italy’s four individual gold medalists in Frankfurt:
- 🥇 Luca Maresca (Male Kumite -67 kg) - first European title, 6-4 over France’s Younesse Salmi
- 🥇 Matteo Avanzini (Male Kumite +84 kg) - defends his crown, completes back-to-back world and European titles
- 🥇 Terryana D’Onofrio (Female Kata) - second consecutive European title, 4-3 over Spain’s Paola Garcia Lozano
- 🥇 Clio Ferracuti (Female Kumite +68 kg) - 10-2 over France’s Clemence Pea in one of the most dominant finals of the championships
Italy’s Male Team Kumite celebrate their third consecutive European title. Photo: WKF.
What else happened
- 🇬🇷 Christos-Stefanos Xenos (-60 kg): a 7-0 win over Serbia’s Aleksandar Vuckovic, perhaps the surprise of the kumite mats
- 🇹🇷 Omer Faruk Yurur (-75 kg): equally emphatic, 6-0 over France’s Kilian Cizo
- 🇭🇷 Ema Sgardelli (-50 kg): a third consecutive European title, 5-1 over Bulgaria’s Teodora Tsaneva
- 🌍 Altana Basangova (EKF-1, -61 kg): senior international debut, European gold straight away
- 🇮🇹 Italy Male Team Kumite: third consecutive title, 3-0 over Türkiye, decisive third point scored by Daniele De Vivo
Team kata action on the championship mats in Frankfurt. Photo: WKF.
Full medal results
The complete medal table lives in our results database: all 24 categories across kata, kumite and Para Karate, with every gold, silver and bronze. You can filter by discipline and search any athlete or country.
👉 See the full EKF Frankfurt 2026 results
Sources
- Italy shines in historic fourth day in Frankfurt - European Karate Federation
- 2026 EKF Senior Championships Frankfurt - event hub - World Karate Federation
- Frankfurt 2026: Avanzini secures double gold - Inside the Games
- Jasmin Bleul: Heim-EM als Abschluss einer herausragenden Karriere - DOSB
- Carola Casale - Wikipedia (career record)
- 2026 European Karate Championships - Wikipedia (full medal table)
Reporting on the 61st EKF Senior Championships, 20 to 24 May 2026. All scores, athlete names, and finishing positions are drawn from the official EKF and WKF coverage linked above. Editorial photos in this piece are credited to the World Karate Federation (WKF) and reproduced for news reporting purposes.