MANCHESTER, UK (May 18, 2019) - An exciting fourth day of competition at the Manchester 2019 World Taekwondo Championships saw Thailand, Italy and Great Britain claim the three golds on offer.

 

Each World Champion was awarded their medals in the evening with IOC President Thomas Bach in attendance. Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit and Italy’s Simone Alessio won gold in the women’s -49kg and men’s -74kg respectively, with Great Britain’s Jade Jones winning her first ever World Championship in the women’s -57kg. The silver medals were won by Jordan, China and Korea.

 

Women -49kg

 

The first final of the night was the women’s -49kg with Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalist Panipak Wongpattanakit taking on two-time Olympic champion Jingyu Wu of China who had recently returned from retirement.

 

Wu took a fall at the start of the first round giving Wongpattanakit the first point, and Wongpattanakit followed up with a head shot and two body shots, pushing her score up 8-0. The second round saw Wongpattanakit extend her lead with a range of body kicks and head shots, finishing the round 16-0. Wu gave everything she could in the final round landing body kicks and a punch, but ultimately was not able to match Wongpattanakit’s drive to win and Wongpattanakit won the gold 18-5.

 

Kristina Tomic of Croatia and Rukiye Yildirim Turkey won bronze.

 

 

 

 

Men -74kg

 

Jordan’s Rio 2016 gold medalist Ahmad Abughaush and Italy’s Simone Alessio started the second final of the evening in an intense fashion, with Alessio scoring 6-1 with a head shot, body shot and punch. The second round brought just as much intensity as the first as Alessio used his 19-inch height advantage to aim for his opponent’s head.

 

Abughaush fought back with four punches but still had a way to go to catch up. The second round finished 14-7. The final round saw both sides really pushing to win, both colliding together. With 25 seconds to go Abughaush caught up landing a series of punches, but was ultimately defeated by Simone Alessio who took his first World Championship gold, winning 18-11.

 

The bronze medals were won by Spain’s Daniel Quesada Barrera and Kairat Sarymsakov from Uzbekistan.

 

 

 

Women -57kg

 

The most anticipated final of the night was between Great Britain’s two-time Olympic Champion Jade Jones and Korea’s Ah-Reum Lee. Jones scoring the first two points with a body kick in the first four seconds. Lee opened her scoring with a punch but Jones quickly replied with a punch of her own to take the score to 3-1.

 

The second-round saw Jones score with three body shots and finished the round in the lead 10-3. Lee forced Jones into conceding two Gam-Jeons but Jones hit back with a body shot. With less than 30 seconds to go, Lee gave it her all but Jones’ defending proved too good and she took gold, winning 14-7.

 

Skylar Park of Canada and Lijun Zhou of China won the bronze medals.

 

 

 

 

 

Men -63kg

 

In the men’s -63kg it was China’s Shuai Zhao and Iran’s Soroush Ahmadi who progressed to tomorrow’s finals.

 

To kick the fourth night of competitions off, Iordanis Konstantinidis from Germany took on China’s Shuai Zhao. Zhao took the first point of the match with a punch, followed by a body shot. Konstantinidis fought back but was not able to register a point, and the first round of the evening finished 5-0.

 

Zhao kicked off the second round with multiple body shot attempts and took another point from a successful punch. In the final round Zhoa tried his luck with a headshot but just missed. At the end of the round the score was 10-8 and Zhoa was through to the finals. The second semi final was between Soroush Ahmadi from Iran and Jaouad Achab from Belgium. At the end of the first round the score was 0-0. The second round brought some intense kicks and punches, finishing 3-1 to Ahmadi. Int the final round both sides scored points from punches, but the score finished 6-3 and Ahmadi advanced to the finals.

 

 

Women -53kg

 

Russia’s Tatiana Kudashova and Thai legend Phannapa Harnsujin advanced to the fifth day finals.

 

Kudashova and Aaliyah Powell of Britain took to the stage for the second semi final of the night. Kudashova scored the first 12 points with body shots, punches and a headshot finishing the first round 12-0 up. In the second round Kudashova proved her strength, pushing the score up to 25-3. During the final round Powell tried but could not catch up, as Kudashova advanced to the final winning 38-5.

 

In the next semi final, Harnsujin took on Latvia’s Inese Tarvida. In the first round, Harnsujin scored the first six points with three body shots, finishing the first round 6-1. In the second round Tarvia cut the defecit with a body kick but was still behind Harnsujin by six points. In the final round the scores got even closer, but with one minute to go Harnsujin was still leading 14-11. The final minute saw a flurry of kicks and Harnsujin booked her place in the final, winning 20-17.

 

 

 

 

 

Men -80kg

 

World Champion and Olympic medalist Milad Beigi Harchegani from Azerbaijan and Apostolos Telikostoglou from Greece progressed to tomorrow’s finals.

 

Dominican Republic’s Moises Hernandez met Telikostoglou in the first of the semi finals. Telikostoglou took the first five points with a series of kicks and finished the first round in the lead. The second round started with Hernandez trying his shot with a scissor kick but missed, however he managed to score two points with a body kick.

 

In the final round Telikostoglou pilled away and landed a superb head shot to win the match 15-6 and progress to the final. In the next semi final, Harchegani and Korea’s Hyeok Park Beigi Harchegani took the first four points with a head shot and punch. In the second round Beigi Harachegani showed his flexibility again with another head shot. A gam-jeon was given to the Azerbaijani and at the end of round two, Beigi Harchegani was in the lead. In the final round Park Woo scored two head shots, but it was not enough and Beigi Harchegani progresses to the final, winning 37-20.

 

Women -67kg

 

The last semi final of the night saw Turkey’s Nur Tatar Askari and China’s Mengyu Zhang progress to tomorrow’s finals.

 

Tatar Askari took on Brazil’s Milena Titoneli, but the first round finished 0-0. During the second round Tatar Askari who came out on top as she scored five points.

 

In the final round Tatar Askari hit the Brazilian with a spinning body and a head shot, to maintain her lead. Titoneli tried to fight back with a punch but it was not enough, as Tatar Askari progresses to the final winning 20-3. The last semi final of the evening was between Farida Azizova from Azerbaijan and Zhang. The first round ended 0-0 but the second round quickly saw eight points awarded to Zhang as she landed two body shots, a punch and a head shot. In the final round Azizoza registered her first points of the match with a head shot and a spinning body shot but it was too little too late and Zhang progressed to the finals, winning 15-5.