Kumite, >61 kg, Women

Competitors were divided into two round-robin pools with the top two competitors advancing to semi-finals and final. To date, no female Egyptian had ever won a gold medal at the Olympic games, but they had high hopes for Feryal Abdelaziz, who was ranked #2 in the world at the under 68 kg category. World ranked #1 in that category was Iryna Zaretska (AZE).

Zaretska won pool A, although she suffered a narrow defeat to runner-up Sofya Berultseva (KAZ) by a score of 5-4. Berultseva actually drew her first contest with Meltem Hocaoglu Akyol (TUR) and lost her final contest when already assured of progressing to the semi-finals. Pool B had a close outcome with Abdelaziz, Li Gong (CHN) and Elena Quirici (SUI) all winning two and drawing one contest each, so finishing level. Total number of points scored in all contests was the determining factor, which placed Quirici third in the group.

The first semi-final saw a comfortable win for Zaretska over Gong by a score of 7-2, although it was only in the final 15 seconds that Zaretska scored heavily (a yuko and ippon). The second semi-final was a much closer affair, Abdelaziz ultimately winning by 5-4 against Berultseva. All points were scored by yukos, with Abdelaziz taking an early lead and holding on to win.

The gold medal contest was a close match, with no scoring in the first two minutes. In the final minute of the contest, however, Abdelaziz scored two yukos without reply from Zaretska, to become the first female athlete from Egypt to win a gold medal.