Bahmanyar is one of the four Iranian Kumite practitioners who have gained the Olympics quotas. Karate is due to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020. There will be eight karate gold medals up for grabs at Tokyo - men's kata, women's kata and three different weight classes for both men's and women's Kumite events.
“To clinch the Olympics quota, I have gotten through near 20 big events in the past two years and now I have no other aim than gaining the best medal of the Olympics,” Bahmanyar told Fars News Agency on Wednesday.
She went on to say that women’s karate in Iran has made great progress in recent years, praising the role of all the coaches.
“I will continue training more seriously as I have extra motivation for the Olympics,” she said, noting that she wants to become the first athlete of Gilan province who gains Olympics medal after near 60 years. The last Olympics medal of the province goes back to 1956 in Melbourne where Mohammad Namjoo gained a bronze in weightlifting.
According to the Iranian Karate Federation, WKF announced that the last event held in Salzburg would be considered as the final round of ranking series for the Olympics as two major qualifying events in Morocco and Spain canceled over coronavirus outbreak. With this implemented, Iran has secured four quotas by Bahman Asgari (Male Kumite -75kg), Hamideh Abbasali (Female Kumite +61kg), Sajjad Ganjzadeh (Male Kumite +75kg), Sara Bahmanyar in (Female Kumite -55kg) who are in the top of their respective categories according to points collected.
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