A high, round kick to the head of Morocco's Nada Laraaj turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 winning margin for the 26-year-old Turkish fighter whose career was gathering huge momentum up to the point where competition had to be held up because of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

"One second," said the leggy, five foot, nine inch fighter in an interview the following day with World Taekwondo. 

"I can't believe it, but at that moment I was hearing the signal and I was so happy."

Iİlgün started taekwondo 14-years-ago though a family contact. 

"My advantages are that my legs are very long, and I am strong and slim," she said. "And I work hard."

Her promise in the sport was soon evident as she earned second place in the senior under-49kg event at the Dutch Open aged 16. The following year, she was under-57kg bronze medallist at the European Under-21 Championships in Chisinau and senior titles soon followed in the Turkish, Ukraine and Moldova Open events.

In 2017, she took another significant step-up as she won under-57kg silver at the World Championships in Muju, losing 7-5 to South Korea's Lee Ah-reum, who had beaten Britain's Olympic champion Jade Jones in the semi-final.

Before the year was over she had won gold at the Summer Universiade in Taipei, and she followed up by earning her first Grand Prix title in Rabat. 

At the 2018 European Championships in Kazan she added another significant medal to her collection as she earned silver, losing to Jones in the final.

In 2019, she produced a series of results that bettered for consistency anything she had done before. 

Her Chiba win was preceded by silver at the Rome Grand Prix, and followed by bronze at the Sofia Grand Prix and a silver in the Grand Prix Final in Moscow.

She continued into 2020 in the same dominant vein, winning the Fujairah Open and WT Presidents Cup - Europe in Helsingborg before taking bronze at the German Open.

Qualification for the next Olympics has been amply secured.

"I am really hard working," she told World Taekwondo. "And I really want to be there."

A medal at Tokyo would be a life-changing achievement. Turkey awards successful European, World or Olympic medal-winning athletes with monetary compensation and post-career coaching positions.

"That is good for building my future," she added. "But I will fight under the Turkish national flag. That is more important to me than money."