Olympics 2020 results: Bulgaria’s Krasteva wins women’s flyweight gold medal

The gold medal is Bulgaria’s first in boxing since 1996.

Bulgaria’s Sofya Krasteva took the women’s flyweight gold medal today at the Tokyo Olympics, out-pointing Turkey’s top-seeded Buse Naz Cakiroglu with a thorough and solid performance over all three rounds.

Krasteva won a near-true shutout decision, taking all five cards for the 5:0 sweep, but losing one card in the second round, meaning she got four cards of a perfect 30-27, but one was 29-28 in her favor.

Cakiroglu, who had a good but sometimes vulnerable-looking run to the final bout, just couldn’t find any way to get the better of Krasteva, who fought confidently and looked stronger and more skilled, with a better all-around game. It was a fairly dominant performance from the Bulgarian boxer, who kept the same approach pretty much the entire way, and even seemed to rock Cakiroglu in the third a little bit.

But hats off to the silver medalist, too. Cakiroglu knew she lost that first round and tried everything to get back into it. Turkey still has never won an Olympic gold medal in boxing, though that may only be true for another half hour or so.