Park Tae-joon's smile "Gold medal crisis, well done.""
Aug 07, 2024
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It was the smile of Park Tae-joon (20, Kyung Hee University). Park Tae-joon has only two shots left until the gold medal. Park Tae-joon made it to the semifinals. Park Tae-joon defeated host country France's Sirian Ravel (11th in the world) 2-1 in the men's 58kg taekwondo quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics held in Grand Palais, Paris on the 7th (Korea time). After winning the first round 8-5, they lost the second round 3-4, but won the third round. Park Tae-joon, who reached the semifinals, can win the gold medal in his first Olympics with just two wins.
Park Tae-joon scored two points with a body attack from the start of the first round. He then led 3-0 due to his opponent's deduction. Another successful body attack widened the score. However, he allowed pursuit with a last-minute torso attack and consecutive points, but succeeded in a torso attack again and took the first round 8-5.
At the beginning of the second round, Park Tae-joon felt pain in his leg as he collided with his opponent. Park Tae-joon got up again and took the lead with a successful fist attack. Soon after, he allowed a head attack. It turned around 1-3. South Korea asked for a video review saying it succeeded in the head attack in the previous scene, but it was not accepted. Both players exchanged points, and Ravel eventually won the second round 4-3.
In the third round, he allowed a punch attack on his opponent, but he brought the game back to square one with a deduction. However, he was dragged 1-3, allowing a torso attack.However, he succeeded in attacking his torso one after another and turned the game around again. Deducted but held on to the rest of the time and won 5-4. In the end, they won 2-1.
After the game, Park Tae-joon said, `At least once until I win the gold medal, I think that was this game (the quarterfinals)"But I stayed focused until the end and got over the hump."
In the semifinals, Park Tae-joon will face Mohamed Khalil Zendubi of Tunisia, who is considered the No. 1 heavyweight and a strong favorite. 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.
Park Tae-joon said, `Depending on how I do it, I can easily win against Zendubi. I've already played with Zendubi twice, so I know each other well. "I think I'll have to make a good judgment on how it's going to go during the game," he added.
vanbasten@sportschosun.com
