Moon Dae-sung knocked out hometown hero Alexandros Nikolaidis in the men’s Olympic taekwondo heavyweight final, topping off South Korea’s gold-medal campaign in their own sport at a modest two.
Moon’s kick caught the Greek’s face with one minute to go in the three-minute first round, sending him down to the mat for a knockout, as the partisan crowd tried in vain to roar him back into action.
The crucial kick gave Moon, the 1999 world champion in the over-84kg class, a 3-1 points advantage over Nikolaidis.
It was the second Olympic misfortune for the 24-year-old Greek fireman who broke his leg in a match at the 2000 Sydney Games when the Korean-born sport debuted in the Olympics.
Nikolaidis needed two years to recover and don his head gear and body again after the injury.
Frenchman Pascal Gentil took the bronze by utpointing Jordan’s Ibrahim Kamal 6-2.
In the women’s over-67kg heavyweight final, Chen Zhong retained her Olympic title by beating world silver medalist Myriam Baverel of France 12-5. Adriana Carmona beat Brazil’s Natalia Silva 7-4 in the bronze-medal playoff to win the first Olympic taekwondo medal for Venezuela since the sport debuted at the 2000 Sydney Games.
It was China’s second gold medal of these Games, following Luo Wei’s triumph in the women’s under-67kg welterweight on Saturday, and the third so far.
After the four-day taekwondo competition, China, South Korea, Taiwan each ended with two gold medals. The United States and Iran took home one apiece. South Korea, which gave the traditional sport of kicking, punching and yelling to the world, won four out of eight gold medals on offer in Sydney.
An Olympic quota limits the entry by a nation in taekwondo to two men and two women in four men’s and four women’s weight divisions in contention. It is a special measure aimed at giving medal chances to as many countries as possible to ensure taekwondo’s survival on the Olympic program.
Chen, who was third in the over-72kg at the world championships last year, led 2-1 in the first round. The 21-year-old Chinese widened the lead to 6-3 in the second round. Chen kept on attacking the 23-year-old French fighter and ended the three-round match at 12-5.
