By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS (Reuters) – South Korea reclaimed their prominent position in taekwondo at the Paris Games, where a wave of upsets and historic wins showcased the Olympic martial art’s growing global reach with the 32 medals on offer awarded across 23 countries.
World champion Park Tae-joon and Kim Yun-jin won gold in the men’s flyweight and women’s featherweight classes respectively, underpinning their country’s overall lead atop the medal tally in the sport with 25 since its formal introduction in 2000
The stakes were high for South Korea, where taekwondo is a source of national pride, after they failed to win a gold medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago for the first time.
Yet the young Olympic sport remained true to its reputation of unpredictability under a 12-metre high Grand Palais ceiling.
Top contenders such as Britain’s twice Olympic champion Jade Jones and France’s world champion Magda Wiet Henin were ousted early on by lesser-known fighters.
Britain’s driven, 21-year-old heavyweight Caden Cunningham stunned the crowd by progressing to win silver in the men’s contest, having defeated three Olympic medallists in a row.
Hungary’s teenager Viviana Marton and France’s Althea Laurin earned the first gold medal in the sport for their country, while flyweight Panipak Wongpattanakit made history by becoming the first Thai athlete to win two gold medals.
Panipak triumphed in a three-round thriller to win in the finals thanks to two video replay requests that confirmed she had landed two kicks to the head of China’s Guo Qing.
The video replays were almost systematically used in bouts, sometimes changing results and, along with the new best-of-three rounds format to replace cumulative points, certainly made taekwondo more dynamic and competitive at the Paris Games.
“The eight gold medals were shared between seven different countries and 23 nations won at least one of the 32 medals available,” said World Taekwondo president Chungwon Choue.
“Not many sports can boast this universality and it is a testament to the global strength of taekwondo.”
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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