Tokyo Olympics: Feryal Abdelaziz creates history by becoming first Egyptian woman to win Olympic gold
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Feryal Abdelaziz
Feryal Abdelaziz, a 22-year old Egyptian karateka created history at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, where she became the first-ever Egyptian woman to secure Olympic Gold. Abdelaziz defeated Azerbaijan’s Irina Zaretska, 2-0, in the finals to secure the historic win.
The Women’s Kumite +61kg was held in a two-pool round robin format, followed by a single elimination stage. Abdelaziz had topped the Pool B table, winning two, drawing one and losing one of her 4 bouts.
The semi-final pitted Feryal Abdelaziz against Kazakhstan’s Sofya Berultseva. Abdelaziz emerged victorious from the match, 5-4. The final bout was quite thrilling, against the reigning -68kg kumite European Champion, Irina Zaretska.
Neither of the two karateka had scored a single point till the last minute of the match. But in the final 30 seconds of the match, Abdelaziz managed to score two consecutive points and became the inaugural Olympic Champion in the women’s +61kg kumite.
Azebaijan’s Irina Zaretska secured Silver, after her loss to Feryal Abdelaziz
Irina Zaretska had topped the Pool A after winning three and losing one of her four bouts. In the semi-finals she picked up a dominant 7-2 win over Chian’s Gong Li. But in the final she found her momentum a little too late. Zaretska hit a spinning kick onto Abdelaziz, after the time had ended!
There weren’t any bronze medal matches in the kumite events. Instead, the losers of the semi-finals secured these honours. Gong Li of China, who had lost to Zaretska in the semi-finals, secured the bronze medal. Additionally, Sofya Berultseva from Kazakhstan also won Bronze, after her semi-final loss to eventual Olympic Champion, Feryal Abdelaziz.
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Sanchit Chandalia
(1378 Articles Published)