Taekwondo's third straight gold medal falls short as Seo falls just short of final

 

South Korean taekwondo heavyweight ace Seo Gun-woo (21-Hanche University) failed to punch his ticket to the final.

Seo failed to advance to the final after falling 1-2 (4-2 9-13 8-12) to Mehran Barghourdari (IRAQ) in the men's 80kg quarterfinals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Taekwondo Games at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, on Monday.

Seo made it through the round of 16 in dramatic fashion. After dropping the first game to Joaquin Churcil (CHILE), he was down 6-15, 9 points with 34 seconds left in the second game. Despite facing defeat, Seo refused to give up and made a last-ditch offense to tie the game at 16-16. After the end of the second period, the referee declared Churcil the winner, but the scorecard showed that Seo was ahead and the decision was overturned. After a narrow comeback, Seo completed a dramatic comeback in the third game with a dominant performance to take down his opponent. In the quarterfinals, Seo defeated Enhiki Marques Fernandes (BRA) 2-0 to advance to the semifinals.

Barhordary won bronze at last year's Hangzhou Asian Games and is ranked No. 9 in the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).

Seo was in a tight battle with Barhordari until the middle of the first period. Neither athlete was able to score, and the balance remained 안전놀이터 tight. With 33 seconds left, Seo scored a body attack, but almost immediately gave up a point to make it 2-2. A skillful kick made it 4-2 with 15 seconds left, and Seo held on for the rest of the period to take the first round.

After taking the first, Seo steadied her game in the second, but then caught fire midway through. In the middle of the game, Seo was down 4-6. He then conceded a head attack and was down 4-9 and 5 points. Seo attacked in crunch time and pulled within 6-9 with 35 seconds left. In the last minute, he gave up a head attack to make it 7-12. In the end, he failed to catch up and lost 9-13.

In the final game three, Seo was aggressive from the start. However, his opponent was also skillful and it was not easy to score points. In a nervous battle, Seo conceded an attack in 47 seconds to fall behind 0-2. He then allowed a head attack to make it 0-5. At a disadvantage, Seo failed to catch up and conceded a point, falling behind 2-9 with 20 seconds left. He fought hard in the final period and made it 8-10 with 0-2 seconds left, but lost the point.

Despite failing to advance to the final, Seo will try for a medal in the loser's bracket. Earlier, Park Tae-joon (Kyunghee University) in the men's 58kg and Kim Yoo-jin (Ulsan Metropolitan Sports Association) in the women's 57kg won gold medals for the second consecutive day.