Thrilling climax as Aboufaras and Khosravi seal taekwondo golds

In the women’s category, Aboufaras, who had a bye into the first round thanks to her excellent position in the rankings, enjoyed a comfortable path in her first two fights and continued to dominate when it mattered most inside the Oceania Pavilion.

In the quarter finals, she beat Poland’s Marcelina Marta Koszel 20-4 to progress to the last four, in which she defeated China’s Wenzhe Mu 17-2.

In the decisive event, the 16-year-old Moroccan had to work very hard to defeat Iran’s Kimia Hemati, but she edged a thrilling encounter 18-16 to take gold. Russia’s Kristina Adebaio, and Mu both collected bronze medals and joined Aboufaras and Hemati on the podium.

“I’ve been training for a long time to win this gold, even here in Buenos Aires. My coach is like a father to me. When I won, my first thoughts were for him."

In the men’s 73kg category, Iran’s Mohammadali Khosravi defeated Chinese Taipei’s Meng-En Lee 2-1 in what was an extremely close and hard-fought encounter.

The Iranian had found things slightly easier in the quarter finals, beating Slovenian Nik Augustin (16-11), but he had to dig deep in his semi-final match-up against Afghan competitor Nisar Ahmad Abdul Rahimzai, winning narrowly, 19-16, to seal his place in the gold medal contest.

"I’ve been training very hard and I think I deserved to win the tournament,” said Khosravi. “Iran is a big power in this sport, even in the women’s category, because the women work with us and they raise their standards even higher than us. It was a very difficult fight. I am very happy I won.

Khosravi shared the podium with Lee, Canada’s Ethan McClymon, and Abdul Rahimza.