South Korea take taekwondo golds

SEOUL: South Korea took the first two gold medals in the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships on Sunday with victories for both the men and women.

In the men’s under-54kg category, Kim Tae-Hun, bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, defeated Armin Hadipour of Iran 10-6 to win a third successive world title.Sim Jae-Young added a second gold for the host nation in the women’s under 46 kg event.

In the earlier semi-final, Kim strolled past Vito Dell’Aquila of Italy 16-0 while Hadipour defeated Thailand’s Ramnarong Sawekwiharee 25-23.Sim Jae-Young defeated Vietnam’s Truong Thi Kim Tuyen 18-9 to make it two out of two for Korea and secure her first-ever world title.

Sim moved into the final by beating Andrea Ramirez of Colombia 19-6 while Truong overcame Thailand’s Napaporn Charanawat 9-8.But there was some bad news for the home crowd in the women’s under-49kg category that started on Sunday.

2016 Olympic champion Kim So-Hui was eliminated at the quarter-finals by China’s Wenren Yuntao 8-6.In the other tie, Serbia’s Vanja Stankovic meets Kristina Tomic of Croatia.

The men’s Under-74 kg category also kicked off on Sunday.Nikita Rafalovich of Uzbekistan will meet Kazahkstan’s Kairat Sarymsakov in the semi-final, while Maksim Khramtsov of Russia takes on Iran’s Masoud Hajji-Zavareh.