Nine countries win gold medals at Roma 2026 World Para Taekwondo Grand Prix

Mexico’s Claudia Romero clinched the first gold medal of the day, recovering from losing the first round to win the k44 W -47kg final against Thailand’s two-time Paralympic medallist Khwansuda Phuangkitcha.

Paris 2024 bronze medallist Sabir Zeynalov of Azerbaijan triumphed in the K44 M -58kg, defeating Korea’s Pyeong Gang Lee in two high-scoring rounds. Lee had beaten the Paralympic champion Asaf Yasur of Israel in the semi-finals.

In a repeat of the K44 W -52kg final at last month’s European Championships in Munich, Georgia’s Ana Japaridze once again edged out Türkiye’s two-time Paralympic medallist Meryem Betül Çavdar, winning the two rounds 2-0 and 6-2.

Paralympic champion Mahmut Bozteke of Türkiye took K44 M -63kg gold, winning the semi-final against the 2025 Para Taekwondo Male Athlete of the Year Ayoub Adouich of Morocco and the final against Spain’s Joel Martin Villalobos.

An all-Brazilian K44 W -57kg final went the way of two-time Paralympic medallist Silvana Mayara Cardoso Fernandes, who lost the first round to Maria Eduarda Machado Stumpf but went on to take the second and third for gold.

The home crowd had been hopeful of a gold medal to celebrate at the World Para Taekwondo Grand Prix as Italy’s Antonino Bossolo won the first round of the K44 M -70kg final against Japan’s Shunsuke Kudo, but his opponent hit back and won the following two rounds to triumph.

Back-to-back European champion Christina Gkentzou of Greece topped the podium in the K44 W -65kg, claiming an impressive victory over Paralympic gold medallist Ana Carolina Silva de Moura of Brazil by winning the two rounds of the final 4-2 and 7-6.

Uzbekistan’s Kudrat Muhammadiev won an entertaining K44 M -80kg final, triumphing in three rounds against Korea’s Jeong Hun Joo, a two-time Paralympic medallist.

His gold was followed by another for Uzbekistan, as Guljonoy Naimova sealed victory in two rounds against Russia’s Elena Savinskaia in the K44 W +65kg final.

The World Para Taekwondo Grand Prix concluded with a high-profile K44 M +80kg final between two reigning Paralympic champions – Matt Bush of Great Britain and Asadbek Toshtemirov of Uzbekistan, who was victorious in the -80kg at Paris 2024 and has since moved in weight category. Toshtemirov had hoped to round off the day with a third successive gold for his country and won a high-scoring first round. However, Bush was leading in the second round when Toshtemirov sustained an injury which resulted in the contest being stopped.

After the competition, World Taekwondo President Dr Chungwon Choue presented Lisa Kjaer with her certificate and badge, having been appointed to the World Taekwondo Council. Kjaer is a four-time world champion who won Paralympic gold for Denmark at Tokyo 2020 in the K44 W -58kg weight category and bronze at Paris 2024 in the W -65kg.

Action continues in Rome tomorrow with the first day of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix, featuring competition in the W -57kg and -67kg and the M -80kg weight categories.

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