TAEKWONDO PARK TAE-JUN’S TROUBLES DEFEAT JANG JUN TO QUALIFY FOR PARIS OLYMPICS

Taekwondo star Tae-jun Park (Kyung Hee University, 5th in Olympic rankings) caused a stir by defeating Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Jang Jun (Korea National Sports University, 3rd) and earned the right to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Taejun Park was selected as an Olympic athlete by winning games 1 and 2 in the men’s 58kg domestic selection competition for taekwondo at the Paris Olympics held at Halla Gymnasium in Jeju on the 1st. This is Taejun Park’s first time participating in the Olympics. Taejun Park and Jun Jang met the requirements for participating in the Olympics by being ranked in the top 5 in the World Taekwondo Federation (WT) Olympic rankings, but they held the domestic selection match in accordance with the regulations that allow only one athlete from one country per weight class to participate .Initially, few people predicted the possibility of Park Tae-jun winning. This is because Park Tae-jun faced Jang Jun six times in total and lost all of them.

Jang Jun is a leading Korean taekwondo player who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and a gold medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, and was expected to aim for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics. However, the results came out just the opposite. Taejun Park defeated Jangjun in the first game with a round score of 2-1 (4-6 12-5 11-9).He unfortunately lost the first round of the first game, but scored two points at the start of the second round by landing a body kick, and 20 seconds later, he scored two more points with a back kick to go up 4-0.He allowed the chase to reach 6-5, but balanced the round score at 1-1 with a series of body kicks with about 30 seconds left. Taejun Park made it to the third round. He successfully attacked the head with a front foot kick with about 30 seconds left at the end of the round with the score tied at 5-4, earning 3 points .Afterwards, Park Tae-jun scored two more points with a body attack to tie the game in one game. Taejun Park won the Olympic ticket by winning the second game held after a two-hour break with a round score of 2-1 (4-7 4-2 9-7).

Taejun Park, who gave up the first round, exchanged attacks early in the second round and tied the score at 2-2.Afterwards, the two players engaged in a tense exploration battle. Taejun Park scored two points by hitting his opponent’s torso with his right foot with 11 seconds left until the end of the round, and took the second round. The winner was decided in the last three rounds .Taejun Park succeeded in consecutive attacks 1 minute and 15 seconds before the end of the round, earning 4 points first. He was allowed to chase at 5-3, but 25 seconds before the end of the round, he succeeded in attacking the body again and ran away with 7-3.Park Tae-jun blocked Jang-jun’s last wave of attacks and won the ticket to the ‘Dream Stage’. Taejun Park made his name known by winning the Grand Prix Challenge, which is contested by players in the middle and lower ranks of the 2022 Olympic Games, while he was attending Hanseong High School.

In October of that year, he caused a stir by winning a gold medal at the World Grand Prix Series, where he participated for the first time, and won the men’s 54kg class at the World Championships, where he participated for the first time in June last year. Park Tae-jun mainly competed in the men’s 54kg class instead of the men’s 58kg, an Olympic weight class filled with strong players such as Jang Jun and Bae Jun-seo (Ganghwa County Office), but he took on the challenge after adjusting his weight class ahead of the Paris Olympics .Now Taejun Park’s eyes turn to ‘Paris’ .Meanwhile, Korea has qualified for the Olympic Games in only three weight classes, including men’s 58kg, men’s 80kg, and women’s over-67kg.In the men’s 80kg class, Seo Geon-woo (Korea National Sport University, 4th place) and in the women’s over 67kg class, Lee Da-bin (Seoul City Hall, 3rd place) will attempt to win a medal at the Paris Olympics .Korea can win one more Olympic spot through the continental selection competition .If you place in the top two in the women’s 57kg class at the continental trials held in Tai’an, China next month, you will receive a ticket to the Olympics. The Korean national team players who will participate in the continental selection will be selected through 슬롯게이밍 the domestic selection held at the same location this afternoon.