World Karate Championships:
Golshadnejad makes history as Iran collects three medals
Atousa Golshadnejad etched her name into the history books of Iranian sport by claiming the country’s first-ever women’s gold at the WKF World Karate Championships on Sunday.
Golshadnejad’s gold in Cairo headlined a three-medal haul in Cairo for Iran, which finished as joint runner-up in the team standings alongside Türkiye, Japan, and Italy.
Saleh Abazari earned a silver in the men’s competition, while Sara Bahmanyar won the second world bronze of her career in the women’s -50kg event.
Golshadnejad pulled off one of the biggest upsets on the final day, defeating defending champion Li Gong of China 4-2 In the women’s kumite -61kg showdown.
The victory capped off a glorious international season for the 22-year-old Iranian, who had already captured a second Asian gold medal and a Karate 1-Premier League title earlier this year, before winning the ultimate prize at the Islamic Solidarity Games in mid-November.
Golshadnejad began her glorious campaign with back-to-back victories over Cameroon’s Dzeu Nelly (8-0) and Uzbekistan’s Sevinch Otaboyeva (2-1) before sharing the spoils with Latvian Beata Girvica (0-0) to top Pool 6 table and advance to the round of 16, where prevailed over Chile’s Bárbara Huaiquiman by hantei.
The Iranian then saw off Belarussian Maryia Azarava, competing as a neutral contestant, 5-0 in the quarterfinals, before a 4-1 win against Tunisia’s Wafa Mahjoub – in a rematch of the ISG final in Riyadh – sent Golshadnejad into the championship bout.
Iranian women had managed a silver and a three bronze medals over the previous 26th editions of the World Championships, with Hamideh Abbasali taking credit for a silver (2014) and a bronze (2016). Bahmanyar and the kata trio of Mahsa Afsaneh, Najmeh Qazizadeh, and Elnaz Taqipour won the other two medals in 2018 and 2014, respectively.
Elsewhere, Abazari came from behind to level the score at 2–2 in the final second against Matteo Avanzini in the men’s kumite +84 kg final, only to see the Italian earn a hantei victory and walk away with gold on his World Championships debut.
This was Abazari’s second silver medal in November, though the Iranian – a world team kumite gold medalist in 2018 – had already made amends for his final setback in Riyadh by defeating Saudi karateka Sanad Sufyani in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Bahmanyar – also a gold medalist in Riyadh – bounced back from a 4-1 semifinal defeat against Malaysian Shahmalarani Chandran to beat Ecuador’s Lili Alvarado 3-0 and win a joint-bronze alongside Venezuela’s Yorgelis Salazar.
Uzbekistan’s Gulshan Alimardanova, who was beaten by Bahmanyar in the ISG final, defeated Chandran 6-1 to claim the gold medal.
Bahmanyar will still have every reason to be proud of her 2025 season, having also secured prestigious gold medals at the Chengdu World Games in August and the Karate 1-Premier League event in Paris last January.
Fatemeh Sadeqi, Mobina Heidari, and Fatemeh Sa’adati were the other Iranian female competitors in Cairo but finished without medals in their respective events. Ali Meskini, Amirreza Borzouei, Mahdi Khodabakhshi, and Morteza Ne’mati also missed the podium in the men’s competition.
Egypt claimed the team title on home soil, courtesy of three golds and one bronze medal.