The Korean Taekwondo ‘heavyweight pride’ Seo Geon-woo (21, Korea National Sport University) failed to advance to the finals, and his gold medal was thwarted. On the

9th (Korean time), Seo Geon-woo lost to Mehran Barhordari (Iran) with a round score of 1-2 (4-2 9-13 8-12) in the semifinals of the men’s 80 kg class taekwondo at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris, France. Seo Geon-woo, who

was ranked 4th in the Olympic sparring world rankings compiled by the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) up until June, just before the competition, was caught by Barhordari, who was ranked 9th and a bronze medalist at the 2022 World Championships and the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.

After the match started, Seo Geon-woo and Barhordari were tied at 0-0, but they exchanged body kicks with 34 seconds left in the first round.

However, Seo Geon-woo immediately succeeded in a body kick, leading 4-2, and took the first round.

In the second round, Seo Geon-woo, who allowed Barhordari to attack his head first, responded with a head kick, tying the score at 3-3.

However, in the middle of the second round, he was hit in the head with consecutive kicks from Barhordari, and fell behind 4-9. Seo Geon-woo, who recovered with a body kick, gave up another head kick 10 seconds left in the round, and the round score was 1-1. Seo Geon-woo, who gave up the first point with a body kick 45 seconds left in the third round, fell behind 0-5 when Barhordari’s head attack was recognized after a video review. Seo Geon-woo gave up a head kick 24 seconds left in the match, falling behind 0-9, and gave up the chance to win. Seo Geon-woo won both the round of 16 and the quarterfinals after a close match. In the round of 16 against Joaquin Churchill Martinez (Chile), he made a comeback after a decision was overturned, and in the quarterfinals, he won by a superior decision after both the first and second rounds ended in a tie. His opponent in the semifinals was Barhordari. Although his world ranking is lower than Seo Geon-woo’s, Barhordari was in great form after defeating world number one and two-time world champion Simone Alessio (Italy) in the quarterfinals. Seo Geon- woo, who was unable to overcome Barhordari’s momentum, will aim for a medal in the bronze medal match. If he wins the bronze medal match, Seo Geon-woo will become the first Korean taekwondo medalist in the men’s 80kg class. Seo Geon-woo will also be the first Korean athlete to compete in the men’s 80kg class at the Olympics since taekwondo became an official event in the 2000 Sydney Games. Seo Geon-woo won the WT World Grand Prix Final last December, raising his Olympic ranking to 4th place and securing a spot in this Olympics. Those ranked up to 5th in the WT Olympic ranking are automatically given a spot in the Olympics. Until the 2012 London Olympics, when each country was limited to sending a maximum of 4 athletes in 2 weight classes, Korea sent athletes in the lightest and heaviest weight classes, which had a relatively high chance of winning a medal. After that, as the world taekwondo standard increased, no athletes were able to qualify. With Seo Geon-woo’s gold medal failure, Korean taekwondo’s three-day consecutive gold medal streak was broken. Korean taekwondo had previously won two gold medals. On the 7th, Park Tae-jun (Kyung Hee University) won gold in the men’s 58kg class, and on the 8th, Kim Yu-jin (Ulsan Metropolitan City Sports Council) won gold in the women’s 57kg class. 안전놀이터