Zafarbek Karimov won a cadet world title on home soil when Uzbekistan staged the 2019 World Championships ©World Taekwondo

Zafarbek Karimov has already experienced a special sporting high by earning gold in front of a home crowd and his ambition burns brightly to add further successes of the kind achieved by his favourite athlete, fellow Uzbek fighter Dmitriy Shokin.

Having started in the sport aged seven, Shokin has gone on to win the 2015 world title and Asian titles in 2014 and 2016, as well as finishing fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympics and earning silver at the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games

Karimov, who sent a home crowd into raptures when he won Uzbekistan’s first gold medal at the Tashkent 2019 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships, also took up the sport early, at the age of eight.

After securing a 31-11 victory against Iran’s Amirhossein Norouzi in the men’s under-41kilograms final,  Karimov told World Taekwondo he was introduced to the sport through classes at school.

"My brother used to go there," he said. "So I followed him and started practising, then I won the school competitions and started liking it more."

The gold medal, the highlight of his taekwondo career to date, was the outcome of six years of dedication to the sport which has seen the young fighter training up to six times a week, for four to five hours a day.

On top of his outstanding result in the Uzbekistan capital, Karimov was awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the Cadet World Championships.

"I feel great, I never thought I would get the MVP award, as my aim was to just get a gold medal, but when I received the MVP, I was very happy," he added.

Dmitriy Shokin is an idol of Zafarbek Karimov's ©Getty Images
Dmitriy Shokin is an idol of Zafarbek Karimov's  ©Getty Images

Karimov had warmed up for the tournament by taking part in the under-45kg competition at the Fujairah Open in the United Arab Emirates, beating home fighter Omar Ismail 18-9 in the final.

Two years earlier he had had his first experience of international competition in the under-33kg cadets category at the Asian World Taekwondo President's Cup event in Tashkent, where he also took gold.

Karimov said his family had watched all the action live at home and cried with happiness at his success.

"I was very scared when I had my first match and from the second match onwards I found strength and started believing in myself," he said.

His victory was watched by the Minister of Physical Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan, Dilmurad Nabiev, who presented Karimov with the gold medal.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to Karimov’s immediate ambitions of competing in the World Junior Championships, which were due to have been held last year in Sofia.

But Karimov has already demonstrated he has skill and dedication enough to be a serious contender to follow his compatriot and role model into the Olympic arena.