Jin Ho-joon (Suwon City Hall), the newest Korean taekwondo star to succeed retired coach Lee Dae-hoon, won a silver medal in his world championship debut in the men’s 68-kilogram category.
Jin Ho-joon (Suwon City Hall) won the silver medal in the men’s 68 kg final on day one of the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships at the Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday (Sept. 29) after losing a 0-2 round score to Bradley Sinden (Great Britain).
Jin, ranked sixth by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), reached the final after defeating top opponents including Zaid Karim (Jordan – 2) in the quarterfinals and Ulugbek Rashitov (Uzbekistan – 3) in the semifinals, but was unable to overcome the barrier of the world number one.
After a cautiously exploratory first round, Jin allowed Sinden to land a head kick with 39 seconds left in the period, and then finished the round without landing a game-changing shot.
After scoring two points with a body attack just four seconds into the second round, Sinden countered each of Jin’s attacks to extend his lead, and maintained a seven-point advantage at the end of the round to secure the win.
Born in 2002, Jin Ho-joon is the favorite to take over the reins of the weight class after national team coach Lee Dae-hoon retires after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
After winning the World Grand Prix in Manchester, England, last October, Jin boosted his stock with a silver medal at his first world championships.
“It’s an honor to win a medal at such a big event,” he told reporters, “I wanted to win first place as I prepared my best, but it’s a bit disappointing that the medals are different colors. I will work harder and try to win a gold medal next time.”
Lee, who competed in the women’s 57kg category, lost in the quarterfinals to Hungary’s newcomer Luana Marton with a round score of 1-2.
‘Shin’ Lee, who won the women’s 59-kilogram category at last year’s World Taekwondo Youth Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, trailed 2-7 midway through the third round, but scored a successful body attack followed by two points deductions to pull within three.
With 10 seconds left in the match, she tied the score at 9-9 when she landed a right foot to her opponent’s head. At the time of the attack, no point was awarded, but a video review requested by Hwang’s coach, Hwang Kyung-sun, showed that the attack was recognized and the decision was overturned.
With the game tied, the referee declared Luana’s victory.
In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by counting the number of successful difficult techniques and points deducted, and in the third round, both athletes landed the same number of head attacks (one), but Luana (three) edged out Lee (two) in body attacks.
“I was more nervous than I thought I would be, so I didn’t perform as well as I usually do,” said Lee, who was competing in her first World Championships as an adult. I’m very disappointed that I didn’t win a medal.”
Luana advanced to the final and won the gold medal.
On the first day of competition, the opening ceremony was held before the men’s 68kg and women’s 57kg semifinals.안전놀이터
In the presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President Sermien Ng, and WTF President Choi Joong Won, a WTF demonstration team performed a variety of taekwondo moves and strikes to the tune of BTS songs.
The demonstrators were dressed in traditional Azerbaijani costumes and performed challenging moves to the delight of the audience.
Around 8,000 spectators, including 950 athletes from 143 countries, attended the event at Crystal Hall.