Gahyeon Kim overcame Shabona Abduvalieva (Photo World Taekwondo)
Korea continue to dominate the World Taekwondo Grand Slam Challenge in Wuxi winning two more gold medals to take their overall tally to four with hosts China adding another gold to their medal tally.
The second day of breath-taking competition saw action across the women’s -57kg and +67kg and men’s -58kg categories.
Korea’s Gahyeon Kim overcame Shabona Abduvalieva of Uzbekistan 2:0 in the women’s -57kg to retain the title she also won last year. Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Kseniia Zdorn won bronze.
Olympic gold medallist Tae-joon Park secured Korea’s second gold of the day in the men’s -58kg as his Spanish opponent Jesus Fraile Rodriguez was forced to withdraw from the final due to injury. The bronze medal was won by Park’s brother Min-kyu Park.
It was in the women’s +67kg that the home crowd were able to celebrate another gold medal. Before the final even began the host country was assured of gold as Lei Xu faced fellow Chinese compatriot Yawen Li.
Xu proved too strong winning the match 2:0 and upgrading her silver medal from last year’s Grand Slam Challenge to gold. China made it a clean sweep of medals with Zeqi Zhou, who won bronze at this year’s World Championships in Wuxi, claiming bronze.
Today’s gold medallists also secured USD 6,000 in prize money with USD 3,000 for silver medallists and USD 1,000 for bronze medallists.
The event concludes tomorrow with the women’s-67kg and men’s-68kg.
