Sánchez won the women's individual kata with a score of 26.28 points to beat Fatemeh Sadeghi of Iran in the final.

"This is very good because it is on the way to Tokyo [2020] and I dream of it every day, because it is the first time in the Olympics for karate and it is very special," the 38-year-old told insidethegames.

"It's been hard here, because we have no beaches in Madrid.

"The sand is different.

"You try to control your speed and balance but you must learn to control your body.

"Today was better than yesterday because we had more experience.

"It sounds crazy but you try to control your body and your mind."

Maria Dimtrova of the Dominican Republic won the bronze medal, despite having to wait before starting her performance because of a technical fault with the scoring system. 

The other bronze medal went to Mo Lau of Hong Kong.

European Games champion Damien Quintero made it a double for Spain with victory in the men's individual kata with 26.40 points to beat Chinese Taipei's Wang Yi 's 24.94 .

In the absence of world champion, Japan's Ryo Kiyuna, pundits had installed the 35-year-old Quintero as gold medal favourite.

"I thought everybody talked about it because Kiyuna my big rival from Japan was not here," he told insidethegames.

"In every tournament everybody wants the medals so we had to make sure of a good finish,and do your best. 

"I never think about if I have to get a gold medal or not, I always go step by step round by round, and that's what happened."

Bronze medals went to Antonio Diaz of Venezuela and Gakuji TozInaki of the United States.