Men’s Flyweight (-58kg)
The Taekwondo world was primed for the showdown of the two young contenders Jang Jun (South Korea) and Vito Dell’Aquila (Italy). Jun started well with two high-scoring wins. However, it was another youngster in Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi (Tunisia) who would beat him in the semi-final. Jendoubi had already upset Mikhail Artamonov (Russia) and put up 32 points against Solomon Demse (Ethiopia). On the other side of the draw, Dell’Aquila was on his own tear, beating every opponent by at least ten and scoring 37 against Ramnarong Sawekwiharee (Thailand). Armin Hardipour (Iran) was the other seed but Lucas Guzman (Argentina), always tough, beat him 26-6. Guzman would go into the repechage where he was defeated in a tight contest by Artamonov. The other bracket saw Omar Salim (Hungary) put up 43 points to qualify to fight Jun only to go down 46-16. In the final Dell’Aquila was run closer but ultimately triumphed 16-12.
🥇Vito Dell’Aquila 🇮🇹
🥈Mohamed Khalid Jendoubi 🇹🇳
🥉Jang Jun 🇰🇷
🥉Mikhail Artamonov 🇷🇺
Men’s Featherweight
The top half saw shocks galore. The only seed to have won in the first round was Mirhashem Hosseini (Iran). Elsewhere Nedzad Husic (Bosnia) beat Ricardo Suzuki (Japan) and Abdelrahman Wael (Egypt) beat Javier Perez (Spain). The biggest shock came as nineteen-year-old Ulugbek Rashitov (Uzbekistan) beat Lee Dae-hoon (South Korea) 21-19. In the bottom half, the two top-ranked fighters cruised through, Bradly Sniden (Great Britain) scoring 53 and 39 to go on to face Zhao Shuai (China). Rashitov would dominate Husic in his semi final winning 28-5 whilst Shuai would lead Sniden 16-9 after two rounds. A chaotic final round saw Sniden win 33-25. In the final Rashitov took an early lead and lead at the end of the second round. Sniden would turn it around, leading 28-26 very close to the conclusion but the young Uzbek used his speed to pinch those final few points and win 34-29. The repechage saw Hakan Recber beat Husic to win bronze whilst Shuai engaged Dae-hoon in a bronze medal filled with postering as both looked to counter. It was Shuai who eventually pulled away.
🥇Ulugbek Rashitov 🇺🇿
🥈Bradly Sniden 🇬🇧
🥉Zhao Shuai 🇨🇳
🥉Hakan Recber 🇹🇷
Men’s Welterweight (-80kg)
Maksim Khramstov (Russia) was the heavy favourite and started well defeating Faysai Sawadogo (Burkina Faso) and Toni Kanaet (Croatia) 22-0. Fourth seed Icaro Miguel Soares (Brazil) lost 22-3 to Simone Alessio (Italy) but went out in a tight quarter-final 5-6 to Seif Eissa (Egypt). The other side of the draw was led by Milad Beigi (Azerbaijan) who went out 12-1 against Nikita Rafalovich (Uzbekistan) in the quarter-final. Third seed Cheick Sallah Cisse (Ivory Coast) went out in the round of sixteen against Achraf Mahboubi (Morocco). He went out 17-15 against Saleh Al-Sharabaty (Jordan) who also defeated Rafalovich. Khramstov won 13-1 against Eissa and was relatively comfortably in the final winning 20-9. Eissa defeated Richard Ordemann (Norway) to secure bronze whilst Kanaet beat Rafalovich 24-18.
🥇Maksim Khramstov 🇷🇺
🥈Saleh Al-Sharabaty 🇯🇴
🥉Seif Eissa 🇪🇬
🥉Toni Kanaet 🇭🇷
Men’s Heavyweight (+80kg)
The top quarter saw both Carlos Sansores (Mexico) and Mahama Cho (Great Britain) upset by Ivan Sapina (Croatia) and Sun Hongyi (China) respectively. Hongyi won the quarter-final to come up against Vladislav Larin (Russia) who cruised through to the final in imperious form with a total aggregate score in three bouts of 70-9. In the third quarter In Kyo-don (New Zealand) came through his quarter whilst the final quarter saw both seeds upset. Rafael Alba (Cuba) lost to Dejan Georgievski (Macedonia) and Seydou Gbane (Ivory Coast) beat Abdoul Ryazan Issoufou (Niger). Georgievski would go on to make the final, with wins in low-scoring affairs. Whilst he did hold Larin to his lowest score, he was still defeated 15-9. In the repechage, Kyo-don edged a scrappy affair over Ivan Trajkovic (Slovenia) and Alba beat Hongyi 5-4.
🥇Vladislav Larin 🇷🇺
🥈Dejan Georgievski 🇲🇰
🥉In Kyo-don 🇰🇷
🥉Rafael Alba 🇨🇺
Women’s Flyweight (-49kg)
Panipak Wongpattanakit (Thailand) was looking to add to her bronze from 2016 and won her opening bout 29-5. The rest of the seeded fighters in her half also went through. Wongpattanakit beat Truong Thi Kim Tuyen (Vietnam) whilst Miyu Yamada (Japan) beat Sim Jae-young (South Korea) 16-7. The number two seed Tijana Bogdanovic (Serbia) was also trying to add to a silver in 2016 but was upset 12-4 to Adriana Cerezo (Spain). She then defeated Wu Jingyu (China) 33-2. Her incredible run continued as she beat Yildirim (Turkey) 39-19. In the final, her incredible run came to an end as she lost 11-10 to Wongpattanakit. Bogdanovic was given another chance in the repechage and beat both Jingyu and Yamada to seal bronze. In the other repechage, Avishag Semberg (Israel) beat Tuyen and went on to defeat Yilidrim to snatch bronze.
🥇Panipak Wongpattanakit 🇹🇭
🥈Adriana Cerezo 🇧🇷
🥉Avishag Semberg 🇮🇱
🥉Tijana Bogdanovic 🇷🇸
Women’s Featherweight
Arguably the biggest shock so over the first few days of the Olympics came as double Olympic champion Jade Jones (Great Britain) was knocked out by 2016 bronze medalist Kimia Alizadeh (Refugee Team). That left the top half open. Alizadeh went out to beat Zhou Lijun (China). The other seed in the half Mayu Hamada (Japan) also went out in the first round to Tekiath Ben Yessouf (Niger). She was beaten in round two by Tatiana Miniba (Russia) who then beat Alizadeh to make the final. On the other side number two seed, Hatice Kubra Ilgun (Turkey) made her way through the opening round to a clash with Anastasiia Zolotic (United States). Only 18, Zolotic took a big win before facing Lo Chia-ling (Taiwan) in the semi-final who had upset Lee Ah-reum (South Korea) and Skylar Park (Canada). Zolotic dominated 28-5 and went on to win the final 25-17. In the repechages, Chia-Ling edged Ben Yessouf whilst Ilgun rebounded to take the bronze over Alizadeh.
🥇Anastasija Zolotic 🇺🇸
🥈Tatiana Minina 🇷🇺
🥉Lo Chia-ling 🇹🇼
🥉Hatice Kubra Ilgun 🇹🇷
Women’s Welterweight (-67kg)
Matea Jelic (Croatia) opened with two big 20-point victories to cruise through to the semi-final. For the reward of facing Jelic, was an exciting matchup between Nur Tatar (Turkey) and Paige McPherson (United States). It was as tight as you get with neither fighter scoring in normal time. The bout finishes 1-1 with both points due to gam-jeom’s. It was McPherson who won in overtime with a golden score. Ruth Gbagbi (Ivory Coast) was the number two seed and beat Zhang Mengyu (China) to make the semi-finals. Lauren Williams (Great Britain) was the third seed and won her opening contest by stoppage before edging Hedaya Wahba (Egypt). Williams won 24-18 in the semi-final against Gbagbi whilst Jelic took a 15-4 win against McPherson. The final saw a quick start before a slow down in the second round. Williams began to take over, leading by six points with 20 seconds to go, only for Jelic to complete an incredible comeback with ten points in the last 20 seconds. Gbagbi hung on to her bronze medal but Wahba beat McPherson 17-6.
🥇Matea Jelic 🇭🇷
🥈Lauren Williams 🇬🇧
🥉Ruth Gbagbi 🇨🇮
🥉Hedaya Wahba 🇪🇬
Women’s Heavyweight (+67kg)
Everyone was hoping for a final between Bianca Walkden (Great Britain) and Zheng Shuyin (China). Imagine the surprise as neither made it. Walkden seemed to have the easier section and came up against Lee Da-bin (South Korea). It was 10-10 entering the third round and Walkden led in the final ten seconds only for Da-bin to land a head kick and pinch a 25-24 win. On the other side of the draw, Shuyin lost 14-6 to Althea Laurin (France). Number three seed Milica Mandic (Serbia) beat Aleksandra Kowalczuk (Poland) 11-4 before edging Laurin 7-5. In the final, Mandic took an early 5-1 lead only to be pegged back to 6-6 but in the last 35 seconds she pushed on to take victory 10-7. Laurin managed to win her bronze by stopping Aminata Traore (Ivory Coast) whilst Walkden beat Kowalczuk 7-3.
🥇Milica Mandic 🇷🇸
🥈Lee Da-bin 🇰🇷
🥉Althea Laurin 🇫🇷
🥉Bianca Walkden 🇬🇧
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