You Yun Liu takes the win (Photo World Taekwondo)
You Yun Liu of Chinese Taipei and Tunisia’s Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi won the in the women’s -49kg category and the men’s -63kg event respectively at the World Taekwondo Championships in Wuxi, China.
Yun Liu – the gold medallist at the World Taekwondo GP Challenge in Charlotte, USA in June – won the women’s -49kg final in dramatic fashion over Elif Sude Akgül of Türkiye, who had performed valiantly competing with an injury.
After a silver and a bronze at the last two Olympic Games in the -58kg category, along with bronze at the Guadalajara 2022 World Taekwondo Championships, Jendoubi finished on top of the podium in Wuxi in the Men’s -63kg. He won the final after his opponent Mahdi Hajimousaei of Iran withdrew in the first round with injury.
The women’s -49kg was settled in Yun Liu’s favour deep into the deciding round. The match was a low-scoring contest, and it was Akgül who edged a scoreless first round, despite feeling the effects of an injury sustained in the semi-finals against China’s Xiaolu Fu.
Yun Liu took control of the second round with a head kick, and was able to close it out 6-3 to take the final to a deciding round. The third round remained scoreless with less than 10 seconds remaining, until Yun Liu produced a brilliant and decisive head kick to clinch gold on her World Taekwondo Championships debut.
Earlier in the day, Yun Liu had defeated Kazakhstan’s Nodira Akhmedova In the semi-final in a repeat of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Challenge final in Charlotte, while in her quarter-final she overcame Spain’s Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, the bronze medallist from the Baku 2023 World Taekwondo Championships.
Akgül had also performed strongly throughout, beating home favourite Fu in the semi-final and the top seed Supharada Ateşli of Germany in the quarter-finals.
The men’s -63kg final was ended in the first round after Hajimousaei sustained an injury, with his opponent Jendoubi taking the gold medal.
Jendoubi had earlier received a walkover in the semi-finals, after Mahmoud Altaryreh of Jordan was unable to compete due to concussion sustained in his quarter-final against China’s Liang Yushuai, the -63kg world champion at Guadalajara 2022 and -68kg bronze medallist at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Jendoubi also won a thrilling quarter-final against the top seed Samirkhon Ababakirov of Kazakhstan in three rounds.
Hajimousaei had excelled at Wuxi 2025, overcoming the third seed Kristian Storsul Borgenof Norway in the quarter-finals before producing a sublime performance to win the semi-final against Korea’s Jun Jang, the former world champion and Tokyo 2020 Olympics bronze medallist at -58kg.
Three weight categories will be contested on the third day of the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships – the Men’s -54kg and -87kg, and the Women’s -73kg.
