ISTANBUL – Iranian athlete Mahtab Nabavi seized a gold medal in the 2021 World Para-Taekwondo Championships Saturday night.
In the -57kg K41 final match, the Iranian athlete defeated Turkey’s Fatma Atilmis to win a gold medal.
Iranian taekwondo players Fatemeh Dodangeh in the women’s -52kg K44 and Saeid Sadeghianpour in the men’s -63 K44 failed to win the medal.
It is the third time Turkey is hosting Para Taekwondo’s biggest event, following the Samsun 2015 and Antalya 2019.
Istanbul 2021 has become the second-biggest Para Taekwondo event of all-time. The 2019 World Championships featured 333 athletes from 66 countries, although the event included the Poomsae discipline – which will not be included at Istanbul 2021.
Due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, at least four teams, namely Afghanistan, Ghana, Japan, and Morocco withdrew from the competition.