On the evening of 17 October, under the lights of Bielsko-Biała, the junior women's −66 kg kumite final came down to a handful of exchanges. When the scoreboard settled at 3-1, Mariam Bsharat had beaten Spain's Noa López González and become world champion again. Two years after her first title, the young Palestinian had come back to the same stage and left it the same way.
A title defended across categories
The 2026 WKF World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships, held in Poland from 14 to 18 October, gathered the best young karateka on the planet. For Bsharat, the stakes were particular. In October 2024, at Venice-Jesolo, she had won the cadet kumite +61 kg world title by beating Egypt's Roaa Mohamed 2-0 in the final. In Bielsko-Biała she was no longer a cadet: she fought among the juniors, in a new weight category, against older and more experienced opponents.
The result did not change. On her way to the final she got past a Japanese opponent, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, before meeting López González for gold. The 3-1 score says much about the match: tight, patient, decided by precision more than volume. With this win, she holds world titles from two consecutive editions of the championships.
Venice, Manila, A Coruña: the foundations
Her path to the top was built step by step. In 2024 she first won the Karate One Youth League in A Coruña, Spain, then the Asian cadet +61 kg title in Manila in August, where she beat a Kazakh opponent 11-3 and an Indonesian 3-0 in the semi-final, as reported by WAFA. A few weeks later came Venice-Jesolo and the first world crown.
That season gave her a reference point. Since then, each competition has been a test of whether the cadet champion could become a junior champion. The answer arrived gradually, then all at once.
A 2026 season at full speed
The year that led to Bielsko-Biała was remarkably consistent. In July, at the Karate One Youth League in Poreč, she took junior −66 kg gold by beating Serbia's Ana Manojlović 2-0; the WKF noted that she controlled the final from the opening exchange. She arrived in Poland as the reigning continental champion, and the WKF credits her with three Karate One Youth League titles in total.
According to WAFA, she also tops the WKF world ranking in junior women's −66 kg. Few athletes arrive at a world championship with that kind of target on their back, and fewer still handle it with such calm.
A fighter of measure
What stands out in her results is economy. Her finals are rarely wide: 2-0 in Venice, 2-0 in Poreč, 3-1 in Bielsko-Biała. Bsharat does not need to win big; she needs to win the decisive exchange. In modern kumite, where a single clean technique can swing a bout, that sense of timing is a quality in itself.
It also says something about temperament. Defending a title in a new age group, in a new weight category, with every opponent studying her, demands as much composure as technique. On the tatami in Poland, she showed both.
A small karate nation on the podium
Palestine is not among the traditional powers of world karate. The medal table in Bielsko-Biała was led by Japan, with twelve medals, ahead of Egypt and Spain. That makes Bsharat's consistency all the more noteworthy: from a national team with modest numbers, she has become a regular presence on the top step of international podiums.
What comes next
The next World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships will be held in Mexico in 2028, the WKF has announced. Between now and then, the junior circuit and the Karate One Youth League remain her natural ground. Whatever category she fights in next, she now carries the status of a two-time world champion, and the expectations that come with it.
Sources
- https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3343/japan-egypt-and-the-usa-lead-memorable-day-of-world-cadet-junior-u21-champions-in-bielsko-biala
- https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3346/japan-tops-medal-table-as-u21-world-champions-are-crowned-in-memorable-final-day-of-karatebielskobiala2026
- https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/2687/new-world-champions-crowned-on-day-4-of-2024-world-cadet-junior-championships
- https://www.wkf.net/news-center/article/!/3230/junior-champions-crowned-as-massive-karate-one-youth-league-opens-in-porec
- https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/175993
- https://www.wafa.ps/pages/details/101983
- https://www.jkfan.jp/news/20240826/2466
Photo: wkf.net (World Cadet, Junior & U21 Championships, Bielsko-Biała 2026)
