Olympic gold for the Bulgarian Ivet Goranova in karate
Bulgarian Ivet Goranova won a gold medal at the Olympics in Tokyo! The young 21-year-old athlete triumphed in the Olympic karate tournament (kumite) in the 55 kg category on August 5.
Goranova defeated Angelica Terlyuga from Ukraine in the final after 5: 1.
This is the first Olympic title for Bulgaria since 2008. The 13-year wait is over, thanks to Ivet Goranova. The previous gold medallist was Rumyana Neykova, who became a rowing champion.
The karateka made a real sensation on the tatami. Ivet Goranova needed medical help at the beginning of the match after exchanging blows with her opponent. Immediately after that, the two exchanged one point. Ivet Goranova took the lead for 2: 1. 1.20 minutes before the end of the tatami, the medics went up again, but this time because of the Ukrainian. Immediately after that, the Bulgarian took the lead with 4: 1 after "Vadzari". Her opponent never managed to find a way to her and Ivet Goranova triumphed after 5: 1.
Ivet Goranova also went through the group stage of the race, winning stream A with three consecutive successes. In her first sparring match in Japan, she defeated Tsuyun Wen of Chinese Taipei with 5: 2 points. Ivet Goranova recorded a 5: 1 victory over Turkey's Serap Ozcelik Arapoglu in her second match, and then won over Sarah Bahmanayar (Iran) with 5: 2 points.
In the semifinals, the Bulgarian defeated Bettina Planck from Austria with 4: 3 points.
Ivet Goranova is only 21 years old and is the youngest participant in this discipline. Karate debuted at the Games, which makes the first medal extremely valuable not only for our country but for this sport as a whole.
Bulgaria already has five medals from the Tokyo Olympics - Goranova's gold, Antoaneta Kostadinova's silver in sport shooting, two bronze medals for Taibe Ussein and Evelina Nikolova in wrestling, as well as a medal for boxer Stoyka Krasteva, who on Saturday will fight in the final of the category up to 51 kg.
images by BOC, Kostadin Andonov, Start-Photo
