Ukrainian karateka Terliuha wins bronze at controversial World Karate Championship

Ukrainian karateka Anzhelika Terliuha has secured the debut medal of the world championships in her career, winning bronze in the category up to 55 kg at the 2023 World Karate Championship in Budapest.

Source: Suspilne Sport

Details: The current European champion started in Hungary with three consecutive victories. And in the semi-finals, she faced her main rival, the Bulgarian Ivet Goranova, to whom she lost in the Olympic final of Tokyo-2020.

The fight between Terliuha and Goranova eventually ended in a controversy. The judges cancelled the victory of the Ukrainian with a score of 14:11 and scheduled a rematch due to a technical error with the scoreboard. On the second attempt, the representative of Bulgaria made it to the finals.

Anzhelika Terliuha, on the other hand, had to compete for bronze on Saturday's competition day of the individual finals. In the end, the Ukrainian won her fourth victory since the start of the tournament without a fight.

In the bronze final, Terliuha had to fight for a medal against Iranian Fatemeh Saadati, the 49th karateka in the world ranking and the winner of the Asian bronze in 2023.

The fight between Terliuha and Saadati never took place — the representative of Iran withdrew from the fight. And the Ukrainian karateka automatically won the bronze medal.

Bronze is Anzhelika's personal best at the world championships. So far, the Ukrainian karateka had not advanced beyond the third round at a tournament.

Ukraine won its third and last medal at the 2023 World Karate Championship in Budapest. Since the beginning of the week, in addition to Terliuha, two Ukrainians won medals in the men's categories.

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