Antonio Díaz (karateka)

Antonio Díaz

Personal information
Full name	Antonio José Díaz Fernández
Born	June 12, 1980 (1980-06-12) (age 44) Caracas, Venezuela
Medal record Men’s Karate Representing Venezuela Pan American Games 2003 Santo Domingo Kata 1999 Winnipeg Kata

Antonio José Díaz Fernández (born June 12, 1980 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan karateka. He is best known for winning gold medals in kata at the World Championships in France (2012) and Serbia (2010), winning of World Games Cali Colombia and a silver medal at the World Championships in Japan 2008. He won bronze medals at the WKF World Championships in karate 2002, 2004 and 2006 in the men's individual kata. He has also won the Pan American Karate Federation Senior Championships Gold Medal 12 times to date.

Karate

Antonio has been dominating the sport of karate for some time in the kata division. His main rival is Luca Valdesi. Their meetings have been fierce, 18 in total, with the Venezuelan having won eight of their competitions.

Díaz practices the style of Shito-ryu. He started practicing this style under Shoko Sato, the first Japanese sensei to go to Venezuela,from the branch of Shitokai. He currently practices Inoue-ha Shito-ryu. Díaz started karate when he was five years old and started competing four years later. Heavily influenced by both his parents who were karateka, he continued practicing the martial art despite losing all of his early competitions and having been said to be a regular karateka with no particular talent. He has declared to have started karate in the style of Shotokan, but because he had only practiced it for five months before starting training in Shito-ryu, he does not consider himself to have been influenced by the former.

He participated in his first Pan American Championship when he was thirteen years of age and won, for the first time, first place in kumite. Up to the age of seventeen he won mostly in the division of kumite.

References

• Antonio José Díaz Fernandez profile at KarateRec.com