Sandra Sánchez's permanent smile turns into a fierce gaze on the tatami, where she is the best in the world in kata, karate fights against imaginary opponents.

At the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, the 39-year-old from Talavera touched the sky with the gold of a lifetime.

In the final she defeated none other than the local

Kiyou Shimizu

.

It couldn't be in a better place. In Japan, the country where karate was born. Sandra perfectly executed the

Chatanyara Kushanku

and achieved an overall score from the seven judges of

28.07

. Shimizu, who performed the same, scored

27.88

. They matched in the technical part (19.6), but the Spanish surpassed it in its strong point, the athletic one (8.46 by 8.28).

Sandra Sánchez, the girl who was 'angry' because they pointed her to dance and not karate, like her brother Paco. The young woman who did not hesitate to leave the High Performance Center in Madrid to watch over her mother's cancer,

María Isabel

. The karate fighter who dominates the world in the specialty of kata has already fulfilled an Olympic dream. A tearful hug awaited her with Jesús del Moral, her husband and coach, and the flag of Talavera de la Reina.

"I come to do such good and perfect katas, that they are worth the Olympic medal. If we take out everything we trained on the tatami, it will never be a failure," said the talaverana in the previous one, who had not failed in the morning session in your first three attempts. Sandra secured the medal, which was then the 12th of the Spanish delegation, very soon and without any doubt. Temprado took the lead in her group, with an average score of 27.4 in the first two kata, which already boosted her among the top six.

Later, in which he was elucidating the pass to the grand final, he performed the Papureni kata, one of his favorites, and again touched perfection.

An average note of 27.86, very far from its rivals in the group, which led it directly to gold or silver.

There, already in the Tokyo afternoon-night, the duel that he had been waiting for a life, before his great rival, the local Shimizu, who also dominated his group with great clarity.

"I thought I was going to be more nervous but I felt very well. I felt confident and really wanted to show my work. Let's go for the gold!", She encouraged herself then, always close to Jesus.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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