KUALA LUMPUR: Syakilla Salni Jefry Krishnan's hopes of winning gold at the World Karate Championships were dashed by France's Emilie Thouy in the semi-finals in Linz, Austria on Thursday.
The 2014 Asian Games gold medallist lost 3-2 to World No 3 Thouy in the women's kumite below-55kg category but still has a chance to end the competition on the podium when she faces World No 1 Sara Cardin of Italy in the bronze medal bout on Saturday.
Syakilla, a silver medallist in the Under-60kg category at the 2014 World Championships, had gone into the tournament at the top of the Karate1 Premier League standings.
Ranked sixth in the world, Syakilla defeated Slovenia's Tjasa Bertoncelj (4-0), Elizaveta Lazareva of Russia (2-0), Mali's Maeva Samy (decision) and Macedonia's Simona Zaborska (decision) to reach the semi-finals.
Malaysia could finish with four medals after Lim Chee Wei and S. Shree Sharmini Segaran qualified for the bronze medal bouts of the men's kata individual and the women's below-50kg event respectively along with the men's kata team.
Chee Wei, also a gold medallist at the 2014 Asian Games, will take on Venezuela's World No 3 Antonio Diaz on Saturday after beating Hong Kong's Lau Chi Ming 3-2 in the repechage following a quarter-final exit against Japan's Ryo Kiyuna, the defending champion.
The country's top kata exponent had earlier beaten Peter Fabian of Slovakia (4-1), Marwan Almazemi of the United Arab Emirates (4-1) and Israel's Rami Shamilov (5-0).
Chee Wei could end up with a second medal when Malaysia, bronze medallists in the last world meet, face Spain in the team bronze medal match.
The trio of Chee Wei, Thomson Hoe and Emmanuel Leong beat Peru 5-0 in the repechage after a 5-0 defeat by Japan in the quarter-finals.
Sharmini, meanwhile, lost 4-1 to France's World No 1 Alexandra Recchia in the semi-finals and will take on World No 3 Bettina Plank of Austria in the bronze medal bout on Saturday.
The 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist defeated Kim Hong-ju of South Korea (1-0), Turkey's World No 2 Serap Ozcelik (2-0), Brazillian Aline De Paula (decision) and Aurimer Campos of Venezuela (3-2) to reach the last-four.
In other events, Celine Lee Xin Yi (women's kata individual), R. Shamendran (men's below-67kg) and S. Prem Kumar (men's below-60kg) fell at the first hurdle in their respective events.