Taekwondo athlete Briseida Acosta finishes just shy of the podium at Grand Prix in Azerbaijan

Briseida Acosta, the taekwondo fighter, came closest to the podium on the second and final day of the Grand Prix held in Baku, Azerbaijan, after finishing in fourth place in the over 67 kilos category.

In her first fight, Acosta defeated Slovenian Franca Anic by 2-1. In the quarter-finals, she beat the Dutch athlete Reshmie Oognik by 1-0, and in the semi-final, she lost to Chinese athlete Shuyin Zheng, the current Olympic champion, by 3-1. In the bronze medal match, Briseida was unable to defeat American Jackie Galloway, who defeated her in the golden point.

In other results, Paulina Armeria, in the under -57 kilos category, was defeated in the first round by Japanese athlete Mayu Hamada by 6-3. Meanwhile, Saul Gutierrez, in the under 68 category, won in the first round against Australian Thomas Afonczenko by 12-0, but in the quarter-finals, the Mexican was eliminated by Russian athlete Konstantin Minin in the golden point.

Finally, Abel Mendoza (-68 kg) was eliminated in the first round by Brazilian athlete Henrique Moura, also in the golden point decision.

"We saw a very competitive team, even though we only won one medal. It's important to remember that the best athletes in the world were present, and the fights were close with Olympic and world medalists. The athletes are gaining momentum and earning good points to position themselves in excellent places, which will provide a viable path to the World Championship. This event also served us to observe them and focus on a good preparation for the upcoming year," said national coach Alfonso Victoria.

With this, Mexico concludes its participation in this final Grand Prix, where it won a gold medal through Carlos Navarro (-58 kg) on the first day of the event, which was a historic result.

"I'm really happy to win this title and to obtain Mexico's first gold medal in this Grand Prix. The key to achieving this result was to stay focused in all the matches and enjoy them. I believe that with this, I can turn the page on what happened to me in Rio de Janeiro. Even though he took my Olympic medal, I keep the 80 points. It was a rematch with myself to prove that I could return to competitions in the best way," said Navarro, who defeated Korean Kim Tae-Hun in the final, the opponent who took away his bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.