Hatice Kübra İlgün (born 1 January 1993) is a Turkish taekwondo practitioner. She has won a silver medal at the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships in the featherweight division, and a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Sport career
Hatice Kübra İlgün left it until the final second of her under-57 kilograms featherweight final to win the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Chibas in September 2019.
A high, round kick to the head of Morocco's Nada Laraaj turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 winning margin for the 26-year-old Turkish fighter whose career was gathering momentum up to the point where competition had to be held up because of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. İlgün started taekwondo 14-years-ago though a family contact.
She earned second place in the senior under-49 kg event at the Dutch Open aged 16. The following year, she was under-57 kg bronze medallist at the European Under-21 Championships in Chișinău and senior titles soon followed in the Turkish, Ukraine and Moldova Open events.
In 2017, she took another significant step-up as she won under-57 kg silver at the World Championships in Muju, losing 7-5 to South Korea's Lee Ah-reum, who had beaten Britain's Olympic champion Jade Jones in the semi-final.
Before the year was over she had won gold at the Summer Universiade in Taipei, and she followed up by earning her first Grand Prix title in Rabat.
At the 2018 European Championships in Kazan she added another medal to her collection as she earned silver, losing to Jones in the final.
Her Chiba win was preceded by silver at the Rome Grand Prix, and followed by bronze at the Sofia Grand Prix and a silver in the Grand Prix Final in Moscow.
She continued into 2020 in the same vein, winning the Fujairah Open and WT Presidents Cup - Europe in Helsingborg before taking bronze at the German Open.
Qualification for the next Olympics has been amply secured.
Hatice Kübra Ilgün managed to win 8-6 in the final for third place against Alizadeh Zenoorin Kimia, the fighter of the Olympic Refugee Team (EOR), in the women’s category of – 57 kg during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. İlgün won the first round 3-2, and continued her form in the second round with a 2-0 win, taking the total score to 4-3. İlgün clinched the last round 4-3 and won the match with an 8-6 score.
She won the gold medal in the women's 57 kg event at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria. She won one of the bronze medals in the women's featherweight event at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships held in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Hatice Kübra İlgün, who passed the first round in the women's women's featherweight category at the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, defeated Nadine Mahmoud of Egypt in the second round and Arlet Ortiz of Spain in the third round. Ilgün, who defeated Poland's Patrycja Adamkiewicz in the quarterfinals, lost to Taiwan's Lo Chia-ling in the semifinals and became the third in the world and won a bronze medal.
Tournament record + Year Event Location G-Rank Place2022European Championships Manchester G-4 1stSpanish Open La Nucia G-1 1stTurkish Open Antalya G-1 2ndWT Presidents Cup - Europe Durrës G-1 3rd2021Olympic Games Tokyo G-20 3rdEuropean Championships Sofia G-4 2ndWT Presidents Cup - Europe Durrës G-1 3rd2020WT Presidents Cup - Europe Helsingborg G-1 1stEuropean Clubs Championships Zagreb G-1 1stFujairah Open Fujairah G-1 1stGerman Open Hamburg G-1 3rd2019Grand Prix Chiba G-4 1st Grand Prix Rome G-4 2nd Grand Prix Moscow G-8 2ndGrand Prix Sofia G-4 3rdSpanish Open Castellón de la Plana G-4 1st US Open Las Vegas G-1 1st WT Presidents Cup - Europe Antalya G-1 1st Asian Open Ho Chi Minh City G-1 2ndDutch Open Nijmegen G-1 3rd2018Grand Prix Moscow G-4 3rd Grand Slam - Qualification Wuxi G-4 2ndEuropean Championships Kazan G-4 2ndEuropean Clubs Championships Istanbul G-1 1st Turkish Open Istanbul G-1 1st Egypt Open Alexandria G-1 1st Sofia Open Sofia G-1 1st WT Presidents Cup - Europe Athens G-1 1st 2017World Championships Rabat G-12 2nd Grand Prix Rabat G-4 1st Universiade Taipei G-2 1st European Clubs Championships Antalya G-1 1st Moldova Open Ciorescu G-1 2nd Turkish Open Antalya G-1 3rd WT Presidents Cup - Europe Athens G-1 3rd 2016WT Presidents Cup - Europe Bonn G-1 1st Greece Open Thessaloniki G-1 1st Palestine Open Ramallah G-1 1st Israel Open Ramla G-1 1st European Clubs Championships Antalya G-1 3rd Turkish Open Antalya G-1 3rd Serbia Open Belgrade G-1 3rd 2015Ukraine Open Kharkov G-1 1st Moldova Open Chișinău G-1 1st 2014Turkish Open AntalyaG-1 1st2013Mediterranean Games Mersin G-4 2nd European U-21 Championships Chișinău G-4 3rdGerman Open Hamburg G-1 3rd 2010Dutch Open EindhovenG-1 2nd 2009German Open HamburgG-1 1st
References
External links
Hatice Kubra Ilgun at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics (archived, alternate link)