Koreans win 2 golds at World Taekwondo Grand Prix

Korean taekwondo athlete Lee Dae-hoon, center, poses on the podium after clinching the gold at the men’s 68 kg category of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix at Sarhadchi Olympic Sports Complex in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sunday (KST). / Courtesy of World Taekwondo Federation

By Baek Byung-yeul

Korean taekwondo athletes Lee Dae-hoon and Oh Hye-ri claimed gold medals at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix, Sunday.

At Sarhadchi Olympic Sports Complex in Baku, Azerbaijan, Lee won the men’s 68 kg category for the second consecutive year after defeating Jaouad Achab of Belgium 5-4 in the final. This was his fifth win at the Grand Prix.

The win was a turnaround after an underperforming 2016. The 24-year-old rose to stardom in Korea after clinching the silver in the men’s 63 kg class at the 2012 London Olympics. Hoping for his first Olympic crown, Lee battled at the men’s 68 kg class at this year’s Rio Olympics but fell short of expectations, claiming the bronze medal.

At the World Taekwondo Grand Prix final, Lee got off to a good start, taking a 2-1 lead through the second round. He struggled in the final third round as the Belgian led the game to a 3-3 tie with his burst of kicks and punches. With only 10 seconds remaining, however, Lee dealt with the situation with his agility and scored two more points with a flurry of techniques and won the match 5-3.

“I prepared for the Grand Prix light-heartedly. I am not satisfied with my play, but I feel great with a good result,” said Lee, adding he will concentrate on the qualifying match for the national team squad of the 2017 Muju World Taekwondo Championships, which takes place in Korea from June 22 to 30 next year.

A day earlier, Rio Olympic gold medalist Oh Hye-ri also won the gold medal in the women’s 67 kg category.

Oh advanced to the final after defeating Elin Johansson of Sweden 6-0 in the semis and met Chia Chia Chuang of Chinese Taipei who lost to Oh in the quarterfinal in Rio.

Chuang’s quest for revenge seemed to succeed until the second round as she took a 3-1 lead over the Olympic champion, but after the second round the Chinese Taipei player had to take one minute to recover as she suffered a powerful back kick to the thigh from Oh that dropped her during the second round. Though Chuang fought hard in the third round she allowed two head shots that brought the score to 7-3 and the match finally ended 8-4 to the Korean.

During the Grand Prix, Koreans won two golds, one silver and one bronze medal to be placed second following the U.K. which claimed three out of four gold medals in the women’s matches.