Park Tae-joon only sees the gold medal in his eyes "It's an honor to go to the finals, but my goal is the gold medal!"
Aug 08, 2024
|
|
Park Tae-joon (20, Kyung Hee University) has only one shot left until the gold medal. Park Tae-joon made it to the finals.
Park Tae-joon defeated Mohamed Khalil Zendubi of Tunisia 2-0 in the men's 58kg taekwondo quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris, on the 7th (Korea time). Park Tae-joon, who has advanced to the finals, is trying to win the gold medal in his first Olympics.
Park Tae-joon's opponent in the semifinals was Zendubi, who is considered the No. 1 and a strong favorite in the weight class. Gendubi defeated Bailey Lewis (Australia, 14th) in the quarterfinals with a round score of 2-0 (7-4 6-3). Zendubi is a silver medalist at the Tokyo Games held just before. At that time, he was a strong player who defeated Jang Joon (Korea Gas Corporation), a leading player in the Korean competition, in the semifinals.
In the first round, Park Tae-joon took a 2-0 lead with a successful body kick attack. However, he allowed a tie 18 seconds before the end, but he made two consecutive body kicks with 3 seconds left to take the first round 6-2.
He lost first in the second round. He allowed a head attack and gave up the lead to 0-3. Park Tae-joon immediately put the game to square one. I succeeded in kicking my head. He then succeeded in turning the tables with a relative deduction. Park Tae-joon even succeeded in turning the body to widen the gap to 8-3. Park Tae-joon gave up a run to his opponent, but he was even recognized for his head attack by video review, and he was recognized for his attack again, eventually winning 13-6.
Park Tae-joon said "Everyone expected the player to come up and do it aggressively. No matter how wide the score is, it doesn't end, so I decided to go all in here because I'm confident in my physical strength. "My opponent is a player with good front foot, so I made a plan with the coach with the mindset of being careful here and being aggressive, and it worked well." "I knew it was a richly unfavorable situation, so I did it as an operation to induce an approach war" he said.
Park Tae-joon had a complete victory in the round of 16 without giving even a single point to Venezuela's Johandri Granado (29th in the world), who struggled against France's Sirian Ravel (11th in the world) in the quarterfinals. He won a two-to-one victory. Park Tae-joon had a variable in the quarterfinals. I was disappointed that I wasn't more aggressive in the first round in the semifinals, but so far, I think I'm going the way I thought I would." Then "I wasn't as nervous as I thought at the Olympics. I think I'm more relaxed because there's a crowd. During the break, I'm talking with the director, listening to songs, and throwing away my thoughts."
As for the younger brother who plays together "I keep in touch with him through KakaoTalk every time"I laughed.
Park Tae-joon succeeded in advancing to the final for the first time in this weight class since Lee Dae-hoon at the 2012 London Games. Park Tae-joon said, `It's an honor, but I'll go out without complacency because I aimed for the gold medal.' As is well known, Park Tae-joon uses Lee Dae-hoon as his role model. He said "Of course, there is a desire to overcome Lee Dae-hoon. Rather than passing it this time, I want to build it steadily,' he said.
vanbasten@sportschosun.com
