In the final ROC athlete Vladislav Larin, the world No. 1 and favorite for the win, competed against Dejan Georgievski, North Macedonian taekwondoist who was wrote history: his country had won only one medal in the Olympic history, a bronze in the 85 kg of freestyle wrestling with Magomed Ibragimov, in Sydney 2000.

Larin, who practiced artistic gymnastics until the age of 5 before suffering a hand injury, took the gold with 15-9.

Georgievsky could still do a lap of honor with the flag of North Macedonia after writing a page in his country’s history.