Fighter wins second straight world championship medal after finishing 5th at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Ukraine’s Yuliya Lypetska continued her impressive year by winning bronze at the 2021 World Para Taekwondo Championships in Istanbul, Turkey this weekend. It was her second straight bronze medal at the world championships, after hitting the podium at the 2019 world championships in Antalya.
The Zaporizhzhia-based fighter claimed bronze after falling to Brazil’s Leylianne Ramos dos Santos 14-7 in the semi-final.
Yuliya Lypetska bronze champion
“I am very happy to take third place at the world championships,“
she told Kyiv Post in an interview. “Firstly, because it means I’ve taken one step closer than my rivals to qualifying for Paris 2024. Secondly, it shows that I am in sports for a reason; that I have the potential to go further and to prove my capabilities.”
Lypetska also qualified for the Paralympic semi-final, before falling to Brazil’s world champion Debora Menezes. She lost the bronze medal match at Tokyo 2020 to Oceanian champion Janine Watson of Australia.
“[My success in] 2021 has changed me. I began to be more confident, more persistent, calmer”, she told the Kyiv Post. “I received tremendous experience from the Paralympics, where the pressure is immense because the whole world is watching.”
Lypetska qualified for Tokyo 2020 with a superb 2019 that saw her medal in all seven events in which she competed. She won 5 gold medals in 2019, including at the Pan Am, Asian, and African Open championships.
“I just want to express my gratitude to my coaches – Oleksandr Pletsky, Andriy Starkov, and Pavlo Pshenichnik – my sparring partners, and the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee for the opportunity to go to these competitions and achieve my dreams.”
