Eunsu Seo (Photo World Taekwondo)
Korea’s Eunsu Seo claimed a stunning Men’s -54kg gold and Belgium’s Sarah Chaâri and Egypt’s Seif Eissa climbed weight categories to triumph in the Women’s -73kg and Men’s -87kg respectively at the World Taekwondo Championships in Wuxi.
Seo was a star performer throughout the day in Wuxi, and won a closely contested final against Furkan Ubeyde Çamoğlu of Türkiye to take gold on his World Taekwondo Championships debut.
Chaâri added to her glittering list of honours by overcoming World Taekwondo Championships debutant Kimi Laurene Ossin of Côte d’Ivoire, while Eissa enjoyed the biggest victory of his career with victory in an incredible final against Italy’s Simone Alessio. In doing so, Eissa denied his opponent a third senior World Taekwondo Championships title at a third different weight category.
Men’s -54kg
The high-scoring Seo was crowned world champion without dropping a round, and his resounding victory against second seed Ja’afar Aldaoud of Jordan in the quarter-finals was a statement of intent. He followed it with an equally impressive win against Uzbekistan’s Jakhongir Khudayberdiev in the semi-finals.
That set up a final against the European champion Çamoğlu, and Seo was able to edge bothrounds to win gold. His head kicking proved a constant threat, and enabled him to build a solid lead in the first round and ultimately take it 14-12. A tight second round went 8-7 in Seo’s favour, cueing celebrations for Korea’s second gold medal of the Wuxi 2025 World Taekwondo Championships after Sang Hyun Kang in the Men’s +87kg.
Çamoğlu’s run to the final included an entertaining semi-final victory against Greece’s Aristeidis Nikolaos Psarros in two rounds. Psarros was world junior champion in the -51kg category in Chuncheon, Korea last year, and earned bronze on his senior World Taekwondo Championships debut in Wuxi.
Women’s -73kg
Top seed Chaâri, the 2022 world champion at -62kg and Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist at -67kg, enjoyed more success having move up another weight category with a captivating victory in the Women’s -73kg final against Ossin. Chaâri narrowly took the first round 3-2, but Ossin won the second round 12-8 in dramatic fashion in the closing seconds to force a decider. A controlled display in the third round from Chaâri enabled her to clinch it 5-3 and seal a second senior World Taekwondo Championships title.
Earlier in the day, Chaâri had underlined her credentials at -73kg with a huge quarter-final victory in three rounds against France’s Althéa Laurin, the defending world champion in the weight category and +67kg Olympic gold medallist in Paris. She then overcame China’s home favourite Zeqi Zhou in a tight semi-final.
Ossin’s debut at the senior World Taekwondo Championships followed her +59kg gold at the Sofia 2022 World Taekwondo Cadet Championships and +68kg bronze at the Chuncheon2024 World Taekwondo Junior Championships. She beat the 2022 world champion Nadica Božanić of Serbia in the quarter-finals, and staved off the challenge of Türkiye’s second seed Sude Yaren Uzunçavdar in the semi-finals.
Men’s -87kg
The Men’s -87kg was also won by the top seed athlete who made a successful leap up a weight division, as Eissa overcame Alessio in a thrilling final which saw all three rounds settled in the closing seconds.
Alessio had looked set to take the first round, but a late flurry from Eissa turned it around and helped him to win 5-2. He was then moments away from victory in the second round, before it was Alessio’s turn to score late and triumph 3-2 to force a third round.
The decider was equally close, but gold went the way of Eissa as he won it 2-1. This was an especially sweet moment for the new world champion, who had won bronze medals at -80kg at both of the last two World Taekwondo Championships and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Eissa overcame Poland’s Szymon Piątkowski in the semi-finals, with his opponent adding World Taekwondo Championships bronze to his Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games silver.
Silver medallist Alessio triumphed in the -74kg at Manchester 2019 and -80kg at Baku 2023, so was seeking the rare feat of gold medals in three different weight categories at the World Taekwondo Championships. His route to the final had included superb wins against Asian champion Mohammad Hossein Yazdani of Iran in the quarter-finals and second seed Artem Harbar of Ukraine in the semi-finals.
