fighter Luisa Valverde won the bronze medal in the category up to 57 kilograms of the Ibrahim Moustafa Ranking Series which takes place in Alexandria, Egyptafter defeating Bulgaria 10-5 Evelina Nicolovand, bronze up to 53 kg at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.

Valverde lost to the Canadian Alexandria Town (14-2) in the quarterfinals, although he played in the playoffs, so Town went to the finals.

Valverde then defeated the German Elena Brugger with 3-1 and fought for the bronze medal.

His concentration this Friday was not diminished even by the fact that his representative organized a humanitarian raffle to pay the costs of moving to Europe to the host cities of the tournaments he has been participating in since January.

Because of this and other convincing reasons, the athlete from the province of Los Ríos appreciates that she achieved her third place in Egypt at the expense of the European who won Olympic bronze in the category up to 57 kilograms in Tokyo.

In addition, Luisa is improving the campaign from last January in the Croatian ranking series, where she did not overcome the stages when she fell against China’s Qi Zhang.

“God always rewards, not when he wants to, but when he needs to; everything in its time and his will always be perfect”said the tricolor representative excitedly.

Valverde competed at the Tokyo Games in the category up to 53 kg and received an Olympic diploma after reaching the quarterfinals. He finished eighth.

The gold medal in the Ranking series of Egypt was decided by the Canadian Town and the Ukrainian Alina Akobbia

Luisa Valverde had to organize a raffle to cover the costs of transferring from Romania to Egypt and Bulgaria to compete on behalf of Ecuador.

According to the athlete, she pays the costs of air tickets, maintenance and registration for tournaments herself. “I came here, and from here I went to Croatia. I returned (to Romania) and from here I fly to Egypt, and from Egypt to Bulgaria. And from there to Ecuador,” Valverde told EL UNIVERSO.

The athlete, who was a double champion of South America (Cochabamba 2018, 53 kilograms; and Asunción 2022, 57 kg), in order to comply with the competition schedule she planned in advance, had no choice but to organize a raffle to collect money and attend the Ranking Series in Egypt from Tuesday, then travel to Bulgaria to play Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov.

(D)