The utilitarian Crystal Hall stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, served as the stage for one of the most auspicious weeks in the history of taekwondo. The World Championship was the perfect excuse to celebrate the half-hundredth anniversary of World Taekwondo with Thomas Bach as a star spectator and also a new Independence Day for the host nation.
In the company of Chung-won Choue, president of World Taekwondo, Bach considered the event as “a great promise for another excellent presentation of taekwondo for Paris 2024″ and described it as the “right way” to commemorate the entity’s new anniversary.
Closer than usual, the final medal table found its dominator in the Republic of Korea, mother of discipline and overwhelming winner at the Olympic and world levels. Three gold medals and one bronze medal, with the peculiarity that they were all captured in the men’s competitions, placed the Asians one step above the surprising Turkey, which achieved the same number of first places, but with three bronzes. The most resounding Korean victory was the work of Tae-Joon Park, who at the age of 18 achieved world glory in -54 kg.
The admission of 14 Russian and nine Belarusian athletes as Neutral Individual Athlete (AIN) resulted in the absence of Ukrainian taekwondo players, who left behind a key chance to join the ranking that would qualify them for Paris 2024. Olympic champions Maksim Khramtsov and Vladislav Larin were banned from competing because of their overt support for the war in Ukraine. Russia’s Liliya Juzina emerged as the only winner under a neutral flag, by appropriating the -62 kg category.
Regulars of all ecumenical competitions, the deeds ended up in the Azerbaijani capital. By chance, Luana Márton, 17 years old, won first place in the -57 kg with an epic tint, having been the first in Hungary’s life in this competition. France, for its part, now knows what it’s like to win two gold medals on the same day: separated by hours, Magda Wiet-Hénin and Althéa Laurin, at -67 and -73 kg, respectively, reached the top on Tuesday, May 30. Laurin, who also serves as a police officer, described the event as “historic”. In turn, the Croatian Lena Stojkovic retained her laurels at -46 kg and won an important two-time championship for Croatia.
The one who failed to increase her golden streak was the British multi-champion Bianca Cook, whose fall in the semifinals prevented her from achieving her fourth world victory in the +73 kg. After being defeated by the Uzbek Svetlana Osipova, Cook, who announced that Paris 2024 will be her last Olympic performance, won the bronze medal along with the neutral Kristina Adebayo.
Wuxi, in eastern China, will host the next World Championship, to be held in 2025. Taekwondo will experience its seventh consecutive Olympic participation in Paris 2024. 128 athletes will pursue glory between August 7 and 10 at the Grand Palais.
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