Seo Kun-woo beat Joaquin Churchill of Chile 2-1 (6-8, 16-16, 14-1) in the men’s 80kg round of 16 at the 2024 Paris Olympics at Grand Palais in Paris, France, on the 9th (Korea time).

If the score is tied as in the second round, taekwondo determines who scored more using the spinning technique, followed by head-body-regime-deductible score. It is a device designed to make players play as aggressive and adventurous as possible. Even so, if all the items are the same, the winner of the round is decided by agreement of one judge and two jurors.

Seo had a draw in the face of losing the first round, and it seemed as if he had lost. The referee also ruled in favor of Churchill.

Oh Hye-ri, the coach of the Korean national team who won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, made a strong appeal to the court. The judges finally started reviewing the video and confirmed that Seo had one more goal with his spinning technique. If it weren’t for Oh’s accurate protest, he could have cried at the wrong time.

Seo Kun-woo, who changed the atmosphere, passed the round of 16 with difficulty, winning eight points in 30 seconds with accurate consecutive attacks in the third round.

It is the first time for Korean taekwondo to enter the 80kg class at the Olympics. Seo is a likely candidate for the gold medal that the Korean national taekwondo team had been expecting even before coming to Paris despite his inability to participate in the heavyweight division.

At the World Grand Prix Final in December last year, he won the title by overpowering Olympic No. 1 Simone Alessio of Italy, Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Salich El-Sharabati of Jordan, and bronze winner Safe Aisa of Egypt. By winning the title, he confirmed his trip to Paris.

As Tae-joon Park (men’s 58kg class) and Kim Yoo-jin (women’s 57kg class) won gold medals in succession, expectations are high that Seo will continue his good trend for three consecutive days. The energy of “I can do it” that has begun to be poured into the Taekwondo team, where fear has disappeared, cannot be ignored.

In fact, Kim Yoo-jin said, “In the morning (Park) Tae-jun hurt one hand and held the mitt,” adding, “I told him not to be nervous and it wasn’t a big deal, but it really touched me.” Kim Yoo-jin also proved Park Tae-joon’s words, “It’s not a big deal,” and raised his voice, “It’s not an Olympic thing, so you can do it.”

Seo Kun-woo, who inherited the flag, had some problems with misjudgment, but the overall performance was excellent. He also displayed accurate body attack against an opponent in good physical condition in the first round when he lost. In the second and third rounds, he focused more on rotational attack, demonstrating the strength of Taekwondo, a technique.

Seo Kun-woo’s opponent in the quarterfinals was decided by Enhiki Marquez Fernandez of Brazil, who defeated El Sharabati, the silver medal at the Tokyo Games.

BY: 메이저사이트