For Wayne Otto, 9 times World champion, karate legend, the women's Olympic tournament has held many surprises. The 1st of them ? The success of Ivet Goranova in -55 kg that the English expert finds justified and reminds that the Bulgarian regularly beats Terliuga.
He is also impressed by the -61 kg Serbian Olympic champion, Jovana Prekovic, saddened by the performance of the French Leila Heurtault, surprised by Garces Sequera, Berultseva or even the failure of Ozcelik. And he praises the unique qualities of the Egyptian Abdelaziz, winner in +61 kg...
Interview by Ludovic Mauchien
-55 KG : « IVET GORANOVA REALLY DESERVED HER TITLE. SHE FOUGHT VERY INTELLIGENTLY »
« This is a big surprise : Ivet Goranova. Nobody was looking at her but, if you remember, Anzhelica (Terliuga) doesn’t like fighting her. On many occasions, Ivet beat her; When you look at Ivet’s performance throughout the day, she deserves her gold medal.
Sometimes, you have fighters that you don’t notice. She is one of them. But if you study her, the girl can kick, punch, sweep with takedowns and has the timing. She has the full package. And, more importantly, she is so clever as a fighter. She has such good intelligence. She really deserved her title because she fought very intelligently and she knows how to use all her abilities. She was really, really impressive.
I think Anzhelica did really well too. A moment, it looked like it was sweeping away from her but, for me, in the last 3-5 seconds of a fight, she is one of the most dangerous female fighter in the world. She also has the ability to be able to pull out big points when she really needs them, to be able to perform under demand.
When you start to look back at the amount of K1 finals that Anzhelica, the amount of times she has had to perform over, and over, and over again, you have to recognize that she is definitely one of the best female fighters in the world. Hands down ! But, on this occasion, I believe that Ivet did her job very well. And she did it better than Anzhelica and deserved to win.
We have to say something about Bettina Plank. She didn’t qualify directly but she made it through one of the highest ranking in Europeans. So, she managed to get a 2nd shot. For her, to still perform after that disappointment and to make it through and pull herself up to get into a medal position and actually get a medal, this is a fantastic achievement, not only for her, but also for her coach. It was not the best performance of Bettina, but she managed to work and push her way through. And, at the end; she got that bronze medal. She definitely deserves a mention.
But the biggest surprise was Serap (Ozcelik) from Turkey. Waouhhhhhhh ! She couldn’t get it together. I don’t know how to explain. I have never seen Serap lose ! I was in shock ! After she lost her 2nd fight, she lost all motivation. I think she found herself in a place that she never knew before and didn’t know what to do with it. When you looked at her performance, you think : « what’s happening ? Did somebody say something bad to her ? It was incredible ! ».
-61 KG : « PREKOVIC IS VERY EFFICIENT IN WHAT SHE DOES. IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION »
« Ooooooooooooooooh ! the -61 kg ! Prekovic is so clever and has a good range of technique. She is the n°1. Not spectacular to look at, but she is efficient. None of her fights were highly scoring, but she is very efficient in what she does : scoring points, creating and taking opportunities for herself and not giving much back to her opponent.
In the final, it went to referee’s decision. And I think it was the right decision. She is world and European champion. She has an amount of experience. Now, she has the Olympic gold add to it… Waouh ! (he laughs) Spectacular ! Spectacular !
She beat Xiaoyan Yin in the final. This Chinese girl is a machine. I am not saying that in a disrespectful way. She is fiercely competitive. She looked hungry. She is always consistent with her performance, her attitude going into tournaments. She is always going to be a major threat.
When you look at the Olympic standings, it would be correct that she would make it to the medal round. She has great technique, excellent punching abilities. She did her job. At the end of the day, it came down to referees’ decision (3 to 2).
Concerning the 2 bronze medals, you have a fantastic fighter, Giana Lotfy from Egypt, that lost to the Chinese girl, and Coban. It’s strange that Coban got the only bronze medal from Turkey. She is the most inconsistent out of the 3 Turkish girls (Ozcelik, Hocaoglu). One moment, Coban could be fantastic, and the next moment, she could get disqualified. You never know with her.
Besides, I was disappointed for Leila (Heurtault). I cannot understand… I think as an athlete, when you get selected for a championship, you have to feel like you deserve to be there. At least, you earn the right to be here, everybody can see I earn the right to be here. And I wonder this was the opposite for Leila.
I have seen Leila many times and I think she is definitely one of the best fighters in the world. I like her style. But, for some reasons, something was missing from her. I don’t know whether it was confidence, maybe not feeling that she really deserved to be there, I don’t know. But one thing is for sure, the Leila I saw fighting was not the Leila that I have seen fighting before, not at all. She didn’t look confident, she didn’t look focused as usual. This also could be done to the fact she is used to have her own coach there or also, this was the 1st time she had been in the lead for France. Anyway, it looked like there was definitely a lack of confidence. I was sad to see that because I was looking forward to see her compete at this level.
I also feel sad for Anita Serogina. She is one of my favorite fighters. She is so clever and always seems calm, cool under pressure. It was unfortunate for her. I would have liked to see Anita in that ½ final. She finished 5th as the girl from Venezuela, Claudymar Garces Sequera. She was the surprise. In the qualification tournament in Paris, she fought the Norwegian girl I coached. I never saw her before. I said : “ok, we should be able to take her”. And she beat the Norwegian girl 8-0 and there was still almost 2 minutes left. I was like… Is that really happened ? Then, she beat the next girl 8-0, then 5-0 and she actually made it to the Olympics. And she is only 22 ».
+61 KG : « ABDELAZIZ HAS SOME UNIQUE ABILITIES »
« Ahhhhh ! Iryna (Zaretska) lost. I was looking forward to watch Iryna because I think she is a fantastic fighter. She has every equipment necessary to win championships and she is very consistent. However, on this day, her performance was not good enough to beat the Egyptian girl in the final, Feryal Abdelaziz.
Abdelaziz was fighting, I would not say near to perfection, but she has such long arms, such a long reach, timing, and these legs that are able to follow you like Exocet missiles, to hit you in the back of your head when she is standing in front of you. This ability is quite unique. She performed really well !
Iryna performed relatively well, probably not to her best performance. But she did enough in order to get herself to the final. Her ½ final fight against Gong Li was great. If she was able to keep that momentum of this ½ final fight, the final would probably have a different outcome.
I believe that Gong Li is from taekwondo. She may have been doing karate for 4 years, but her kicking ability and fighting knowledge is not just 3-4 years old. You don’t learn how to do that in 4 years. She has good fighting instinct. This is not 3 years old. That is quite longer. But I am not such a great fan of Gong Li’s fighting, to be honest. I don’t like the spinning kicks falling on the ground and all of this. I prefer my Karate more stand up. Although she did well in K1’s and she fights according to the rules, her style of fighting is not really my cup of tea.
It’s effective and she got the bronze medal, but I would have preferred to see Elena Quirici with the medal. In her category, it came down to who scored the most points. Each one have 5 points. It’s sad for her. That was unfortunate for her; I think she deserved a medal.
I was actually surprised by Sofia Berultseva from Kazakhstan. She made it through. I didn’t think that her performance in the qualification tournament was that good. But, obviously, she managed to turn it around in Tokyo.
I am not a fan of Meltem Hocaoglu’s style of fighting. I am not surprised by the fact she didn’t get a medal.
Concerning Uekusa, as I say for all Japanese fighters, I think the last 2 years, with Covid, kind of isolated Japanese fighters. I think if these Games happened a year ago, some results would have been really different ».
