Such was the depth of quality for Mexico in the over-67 kilograms heavyweight women's class that the national federation arranged a best-of-three play-off between the 32-year-old Espinoza – gold medallist at the Beijing 2008 Games, bronze medallist at London 2012 and silver medallist at Rio 2016 – against rising 26-year-old talent Acosta.

With the fighters seventh and eighth in the world rankings, respectively, the Mexican Taekwondo Federation had struggled to choose between them and organised the competition to decide in February this year.

Espinoza won the first bout but Acosta – the Pan American Games gold medallist and world bronze medallist in 2019 – then defeated her in the next two.

Having won that momentous contest, the following month's Pan American Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in Costa Rica proved a more straightforward exercise for Acosta as she secured her place in Tokyo with a 9-4 win over Cuba's Yamitsi Carbonell, followed by a 15-5 victory over Keyla Avila Ramirez of Honduras.

Acosta can now look forward to challenging for a senior Olympic medal to add to the one she won at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, where she took silver after the narrowest of defeats in the final, going down 2-1 to China's Shuyin Zheng – who would go on to win the Rio 2016 title.

Acosta's senior career got underway the following year, and she marked it with victory in the Trelleborg Open before contesting her first World Championships at Gyeongju.

Two years later, aged 19, she returned to the World Championships arena in her home city of Puebla and delighted spectators by taking an exceptional silver medal in the heavyweight class, losing 8-3 in her final against Russia's Olga Ivanova. 

She followed up in 2014 by winning another medal on home soil as she took the Pan American Championships title in Agualascientes, beating Katherine Rodriguez Peguero 4-2 in the final.

But her hopes at the 2015 World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia, were halted at the quarter-final stage.

And, after Espinoza had taken the Mexican qualifying place for Rio 2016, Acosta was frustrated once again in global competition as she made another quarter-final exit at the 2017 World Championships in Muju, South Korea.

Two years further on, however, at the 2019 World Championships staged in Manchester, she returned to the global podium, taking bronze after being defeated in her semi-final by the eventual home-town winner, Bianca Walkden.

Acosta maintained her momentum at the Pan American Games in Lima later that summer, where she won gold after defeating Colombia's Gloria Mosquera 10-5.