Matter of bragging rights

Korea’s Kim So-hui, right, attacks China’s Li Zhaoyi during the women’s -46 kilogram final at the World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in 2011. Kim, who won the match, will be looking to defend her title in Puebla. / Korea Times file

Tough mission ahead for Korean taekwondo athletes in Puebla

By Jung Min-ho

PUEBLA, Mexico — The 21st World Taekwondo Championships kicked off with a grand opening ceremony at the Centro Expositor in downtown Puebla Monday.

For Korea, the biennial event will be a test to prove whether the country still has the top athletes in a sport it used to dominate. For the Koreans, the previous championships in Gyeongju, Korea, served as a fresh blast of reality. There, Iranians took home more gold medals than the Koreans in the men’s competition and the Chinese did the same on the women’s side.

The haul of two Olympic medals — one gold, the other silver — at the London Games was the lowest since taekwondo was introduced as an Olympic sport in the 2000 Sydney Games.

It could be argued that there is no better compliment to taekwondo as a global sport than the increasing parity between athletes of different countries. But the Korean athletes in Puebla don’t want to be remembered as the generation that let the country’s dominance in the sport slip irrevocably.

About 900 athletes from 129 nations will participate in 16 events.

Veterans Lee Dae-hoon and Kim Hoon lead the list of Korean medal hopefuls. Britain’s Jade Jones, the London Olympic gold medalist in the women’s -57kg category, Turkey’s Servet Tazegul, the gold medalist in the men’s -68kg category, and Italy’s Carlo Molfetta, the gold medalist in the men’s +80kg division, are some of the notable athletes who will compete in Puebla.

American Steven Lopez, the gold medalist at the 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Championships, and Britain’s Aaron Cook, who finished at 5th in the men’s -80kg at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, also will compete in the men’s -80kg division.

The daily contests will be three sessions: the morning session from 9 a.m. to noon, the afternoon session up to quarterfinal matches from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the semifinal as well as final sessions from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

For fair judging at the event, a Daedo protector and scoring system (PSS) will be used with an instant video replay system as they were at the London Games.

The Korean team came to Puebla a week before the competition to have enough time to adjust to the high-altitude environment as the town is more than 2,000 meters above sea level.