Emine Göğebakan and Nafia Kuş Aydin (Photo by World Taekwondo)
Türkiye celebrated two gold medals on the fourth day of the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships through Emine Göğebakan in the women’s -46kg and Nafia Kuş Aydin in the women’s +73kg.
Meanwhile Brazil’s Henrique Marques Rodrigues Fernandes earned a memorable victory in the men’s -80kg.
Remarkably, Türkiye achieved the same feat on day four of the Baku 2023 World Taekwondo Championships, and this was another night for them to remember.
Göğebakan earned their first medal of this year’s championships against Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Milana Bekulova in the women’s -46kg final.
The women’s +73kg final brought together two decorated athletes in Kuş Aydin and Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Osipova for what was a repeat of the gold medal match in Baku. Kuş Aydin successfully defended her crown to round off the evening.
Sandwiched in between those two finals was a thrilling conclusion to the men’s -80kg weight category, won by Rodrigues Fernandes against China’s Qizhang Xiang.
Women’s -46kg
Göğebakan earned an impressive victory in two rounds against Bekulova, showing great maturity to prevent her opponent from scoring in the first round and take it 5-0, before getting the better of Bekulova in the second and winning it 7-4.
That rounded off a neat treble for Göğebakan, who was a bronze medallist at the Baku 2014 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships, silver medallist at the Hammamet 2018 World Taekwondo Junior Championships and now gold medallist in Wuxi.
Göğebakan overcame Kazakhstan’s Aidana Kumartayeva in her semi-final, while in the other half of the draw Bekulova earned an fine win against China’s Asian champion Shiyi Wang.
Men’s -80kg
Rodrigues Fernandes triumphed in a hotly contested Men’s -80kg weight category, claiming several notable victories along the way. In the quarter-finals, he beat CJ Nickolas of the USA, the Baku 2023 silver medallist and winner of back-to-back World Taekwondo Grand Prix Challenge events in Charlotte, USA and Muju, Korea this year.
He then overcame a tough challenge from AIN Artem Mytarev in the semi-finals, setting up a final against home favourite Qizhang Xiang.
Xiang had knocked out the Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallist Mehran Barkhordari of Iran in the quarter-finals, and won a three-round thriller against Geon Woo Seo in the semi-finals.
Seo earlier defeated the Olympic champion Firas Katousi of Tunisia in the quarter-final, underlining the strength and depth of talent in the -80kg weight division.
Both rounds in the final were closely fought, but it was Rodrigues Fernandes who edged the first 2-1 and a scoreless second to earn Brazil’s first gold medal of Wuxi 2025.
Women’s +73kg
The Women’s +73kg was another star-studded field, ending with a titanic clash between Kuş Aydin and Osipova, who won bronze and silver respectively at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Ultimately, it went the same way as in Baku two years ago, as Kuş Aydin recovered from losing the first round to defend her title.
Osipova edged the first round 3-2, but Kuş Aydin showed all her experience to stay in the contest and take the second, which finished 5-5. That led to a decider, which Kuş Aydin clinched 6-0 to seal victory.
She had not dropped a round en route to the final, including an assured display in the semi-final against Great Britain’s Lauren Williams.
Osipova meanwhile was involved in three intriguing matches which went to three rounds leading up to the final, including her semi-final against Wenzhe Mu of China, the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Challenge winner in Charlotte.
Day five of the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships will feature competition in the Men’s -68kg and Women’s -67kg.
