Park Tae-jun and Seo Geon-woo Kick Off 'Golden Kicks' [Paris Olympics]

Park Tae-jun "I will relieve Coach Lee Dae-hoon"
Lee Da-bin avoids world No.1 Lorang until final

Taekwondo stars Park Tae-jun (Kyung Hee University) and Seo Geon-woo (Korea National Sport University) are starting their kicks toward the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to MyInfo, the official information site of the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee, on the 5th (local time), Park Tae-jun will face Yohandry Granado (Venezuela) in the round of 16 of the men's 58kg category, the first taekwondo event on the 7th. Granado is ranked 29th in the Olympic sparring rankings compiled by the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) until June. Park Tae-jun is ranked 5th.

If Park defeats Granado, he is likely to face Cyrille Lavet (France, 11th), who will meet Georgi Gurchiev (Individual Neutral Athlete, 13th) in the round of 16. If he wins two consecutive matches to reach the semifinals, he is likely to face Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi, the world number one and silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Jendoubi is a strong contender who defeated Jang Jun (Korea Gas Corporation, 3rd), the Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist, in the final of the 3rd WT Grand Prix series last year.

Park Tae-jun has experience winning at the 3rd WT Grand Prix series in October 2022. At that time, he caused a sensation by defeating Vito Dell'Aquila (Italy), the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist. At last year's World Championships, he competed in the non-Olympic men's 54kg category and won both the gold medal and the men's MVP award. He stated, "I will resolve the regret of Coach Lee Dae-hoon, who retired without winning an Olympic gold medal."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Seo Geon-woo (4th), competing in the men's 80kg category, may face a tough opponent, Saleh Elsharabaty (Jordan, 5th), in the quarterfinals. They will meet if each defeats their round of 16 opponents, Joaquin Turchil (Chile, 24th) and Henrique Marques Fernandes (Brazil, 23rd), respectively. If Seo beats Elsharabaty and advances to the semifinals, he is likely to face Simone Alessio (Italy), a 2-meter tall powerhouse who swept the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd WT Grand Prix series in 2022 and is ranked number one in the world. However, Seo has good memories against him, having won by one point with his specialty back kick in the quarterfinals of last year's 1st Grand Prix series.

In the women's over 67kg category, Lee Da-bin (Seoul Metropolitan Government, 4th) avoids facing the strong gold medal favorite Althea Laurin (France, 1st) until the final. Her first opponent is Petra Stolbova (Czech Republic, 12th). Lee is competing in a higher weight class for this tournament. If she defeats Stolbova, she will face the winner of the match between Zhou Ziqi (China, 10th) and Marlene Jahl (Austria, 22nd) in her second match. Zhou was a tough opponent who defeated Lee Da-bin in the final of the Hangzhou Asian Games to win the gold medal. Kim Yoo-jin (Ulsan Metropolitan City Sports Council, 12th), who has the lowest world ranking in the team within her weight class, will have her first match on the 8th in the round of 16 against Hatice Ilgun (Turkey, 5th).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.