SEE MORE: Taekwondo recap, Aug. 7: Thailand’s Panipak, South Korea’s Park take gold in flyweight
Uzbekistan’s Rashitov retains Olympic title in Paris
Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashitov retained his men’s Olympic taekwondo featherweight title on Thursday, Aug. 8, beating Jordan’s Zaid Kareem to the gold medal.
Rashitov defeated Kareem in two rounds, scoring 5-4 and 3-1, securing the first-round win with a stunning turning kick to the head that earned five points.
The Uzbek fighter gained his second gold medal after claiming his first at the 2020 Tokyo Games, when he made history by becoming his country’s first Olympic taekwondo champion.
“Two years ago with Zaid Kareem we planned to be in the finals of the Olympic Games,” Rashitov said in a press conference. “Back then we planned that and I can say today: what’s happening is history. It’s fantastic. The most important thing is to believe in yourself.”
Brazil’s Edival Pontes and China’s Liang Yushuai won the bronze medals
Rashitov dominated the contest in the Grand Palais, beating all his opponents in the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals by scoring wins in the first two rounds of each match, including a humbling defeat to China’s former world champion, Liang, on his way to the final where the Chinese fighter did not manage a single kick.
SEE MORE: Rashitov repeats, claims another gold in men’s featherweight
South Korea’s Kim dominates for gold medal
South Korea’s Kim Yu-jin won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s taekwondo featherweight division, swiftly beating Iran’s Nahid Kiyanichandeh in a show of strength for her country.
Kim’s victory brings South Korea its second taekwondo gold medal at the Paris Games, after Park Tae-Joon won gold in the men’s taekwondo flyweight division on Wednesday, Aug. 7.
SEE MORE: Taekwondo recap, Aug. 7: Thailand’s Panipak, South Korea’s Park take gold in flyweight
South Korea, a traditional taekwondo powerhouse, had failed to win any medals in the sport at the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Kim defeated Kiyanichandeh in two rounds, 5-1 and 9-0, a rough score for the Iranian fighter who holds the world title in her class.
Kiyanichandeh did not manage to get one kick through and lost six points over the two rounds in penalties while Kim secured victory with three kicks to the body and one to the head.
Kiyanichandeh becomes the first Iranian woman to win silver at the Olympics in taekwondo, surpassing Iran’s first Olympic medalist, and her former teammate, Kimia Alizadeh, who fled her homeland four years ago.
Kiyanichandeh defeated Alizadeh in the round of 16, her first bout of the Paris Games.
Now fighting under the Bulgarian national banner, Alizadeh made it through repechage and secured a second bronze medal, the first Olympic taekwondo medal ever won by her new home country.
Canada’s Skylar Park won the other bronze medal.
SEE MORE: Kim stomps Kiyanichandeh for women’s featherweight gold
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