Canada's first medal at the World Wrestling Championships was won by a Coquitlam wrestler.
Karla Godinez Gonzalez won on points, 6-2, in her final match to claim a bronze medal in Belgrade, Serbia, on Tuesday (Sept. 13).
The 24-year-old defeated Mariana Dragutan of Moldova to reach the podium in the 55 kg weight division and earn the third medal of her career.
Earlier this year, she won gold at the Senior Pan-American Games and silver at an international competition in Tunisia.
Godinez Gonzalez is currently ranked 24th in the world for her weight class, according to United World Wrestling — the global governing body for the sport.
At the 2022 worlds, she finished a record of 3-1.
Her first two victories also ended in victory on points over Uzbekistan's Shokhida Akhmedova (score of 5-2) and Romania's Andreea Beatrice Ana (2-1).
The loss came in the semi-finals at hands of Ukraine's Oleksandra Khomenets — a 5-3 decision despite Godinez Gonzalez earning the final point of the match.
Khomenets went on to claim silver after losing in the gold-medal game to Mayu Shidochi Mukaida of Japan.
Prior to joining Team Canada overseas, Godinez Gonzalez captured the National College Women's Wrestling Coalition (NCWWC) national championship in her 116-pound category.
She went undefeated at the tournament (5-0), and was one of three wrestlers representing Simon Fraser University (SFU) to win a individual title for 2022.
Meanwhile, her sister Ana Godinez Gonzalez came up just short of a medal in Serbia.
She settled for fourth place after falling to Xiaojuan Luo of China in the bronze-medal match for the 62 kg weight class.
The 23-year-old, who ranks 11th in United World Wrestling, won silver last month for the same category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Like her sister, Godinez Gonzalez also won gold in her division at the Senior Pan-American Games in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Coquitlam's Darthe Capellan will begin his quest for world wrestling gold on Friday (Sept. 16) when qualificiation rounds take place for the 57 kg freestyle competition.
He's looking to build on his bronze medal-winning performance at the Commonwealth Games and possible add another piece of hardware to his current total of five international honours.
