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Rabat – Moroccan boxer Khadija El Mardi won the heavyweight gold medal at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship 2023 held in New Delhi, India after defeating Lazzat Kungeibayeva from Kazakhstan in the final.
The win was unanimous, with all five of the judges voting for El Mardi over her Kazakh opponent.
Before this year’s tournament, El Mardi won the silver medal in the heavyweight category in the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul, as well as a bronze medal in the 2019 championship in Ulan-Ude, Russia.
With the win, she has become the first Moroccan, African, and Arab woman to win an international gold medal in boxing.
She also won the gold medal at the 2022 African Championships in Maputo, Mozambique, and the 2019 African Games in Rabat.
Despite representing Morocco in the 2016 Summer Olympics, El Mardi had to withdraw from the 2020 Olympics due to medical reasons.
Russian boxer Diana Pyatak and Azerbaijani Aynur Rzayeva won the bronze medal.
The minimum weight event saw another medal for Morocco, as Yasmine Moutaqui shared the bronze with Kazakh Alua Balkibekova.
