Halifax’s Ryan O’neil loses in Olympic karate bid

Ryan O'neil's 2021 Olympic quest has come to a halt in Paris.

Halifax's O'neil, one of eight athletes selected by Karate Canada to represent the country at this week's World Karate Federation's Olympic Qualification Tournament in the French capital, lost in the first round to Sultan Alzahrani of Saudi Arabia on Friday, eliminating the 24-year-old from Olympic qualifying.

O'neil was the lone Canadian entered in the men's under 67-kilogram kumite (fight) weight class.

Karate makes its debut as an official Olympic sport this summer in Tokyo.

To qualify for Tokyo, O'neil needed to place in the top three of his weight class in Paris. Sixty-eight competitors were entered in his division at the qualification tournament.

Eight gold medals will be up for grabs in the Olympic karate competition, six in kumite (men's under-67, under-75 and 75-and-over kg and women's under-55, under-61 and 61-and-over kg) and one each for the men's and women's kata (form) competition.

Each weight class will have 10 competitors. Seven spots have already been claimed, leaving the remaining three in each weight class to be decided in Paris.

O'neil is also a three-time world champion in taekwondo. He has won three consecutive gold medals at the International Taekwondo Federation world championships, the last coming in 2019 in Inzell, Germany.

Taekwondo has been a summer Olympic sport since 2000. But O'neil trains and competes in the ITF system of taekwondo. The World Taekwondo Federation (WT) is the sport's governing Olympic body.