Panipak Wongpattanakit defends his Olympic title

Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion Panipak Wongpattanakit defended her title to secure Thailand’s first gold medal at the Paris Games and Park Tae-joon restored South Korea’s pride on the opening day of tae kwon do competitions.

Tae kwon do is South Korea’s national martial art and the country suffered a humiliation in Tokyo, failing to win a single gold medal for the first time since 2000, when the sport became an official part of the Olympic programme.

Park put the record straight by defeating his opponent in a brutal gold medal match.

Meanwhile, 26-year-old Wongpattanakit comfortably won his first three matches to reach the final of the 49kg category.

He was knocked down in the first round by China’s Guo Qing but recovered with two consecutive kicks to the body and head. Guo fought back to force a tiebreaker but Wongpattanakit prevailed after video reviews showed he had landed two spectacular head kicks.

Under the new rules introduced in Paris, bouts are decided by a “best of three” format rather than cumulative points.

In the 58kg class, Park defeated Azerbaijan’s Gashim Magomedov, who remained on the team but withdrew injured.

Trailing 7-0 with 14 seconds remaining, he limped off and sat back down for more treatment, losing the round without scoring a point. Magomedov was helped off the mat, but returned for the second round and continued to remain unthreatening to his opponent, who capped off his masterpiece with a superb spinning head kick.—AP

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