TAEKWONDO Preview: 18 World and Olympic champs in Chiba Grand Prix

Korea's three-time World 68 kg Champion Dae-Hoon Lee

This week’s World Taekwondo Grand Prix will serve as a partial preview of the 2020 Olympic tournament, as it is being held in Chiba, site of the 2020 events, but at the Chiba Port Arena instead of the actual Games venue. But it’s the first World Taekwondo Grand Prix being held in Japan and has attracted an all-star field.

Competitions will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with finals each day. A total of 251 fighters (124 men and 127 women) are entered; the top seeds include an impressive 18 gold medalists in the Olympic Games or World Championships:

Men/58 kg:
1. Tae-hun Kim (KOR) ~ 2013-15-17 World 54 kg Champion
2. Jun Jang (KOR) ~ 2019 World Champion
3. Jesus Tortosa Cabrera (ESP) ~ 2017 Worlds bronze medalist

Men/68 kg:
1. Dae-hoon Lee (KOR) ~ 2011-13-17 World Champion; 2019 Worlds bronze medalist
2. Bradly Sinden (GBR) ~ 2019 World Champion; 2017 Worlds 63 kg bronze
3. Ahmad Abughaush (JOR) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2019 Worlds 74 kg silver

Men/80 kg:
1. Maksim Khramtcov (RUS) ~ 2019 Worlds 74 kg Champion
2. Cheick Sallah Cisse (CIV) ~ 2016 Olympic gold medalist
3. Milad Beigi Harchegani (AZE) ~ 2019 World Champion

Men/+80 kg:
1. Vladislav Larin (RUS) ~ 2019 Worlds 87 kg Champion; 2017 Worlds 87 kg silver
2. Kyo-don In (KOR) ~ 2017 Worlds 87 kg silver medalist
3. Mahama Cho (GBR) ~ 2017 Worlds +87 kg silver medalist

Women/49 kg:
1. Panipak Wongpattanakit (THA) ~ 2019 World Champion; 2015 46 kg World Champion
2. So-hui Kim (KOR) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion
3. Jae-young Sim (KOR) ~ 2017-19 46 kg World Champion

Women/57 kg:
1. Ah-reum Lee (KOR) ~ 2017 World Champion; 2019 Worlds silver medalist
2. Tatiana Kudashova (RUS) ~ 2017-19 Worlds 53 kg silver medalist
3. Hatice Ilgun (TUR) ~ 2017 Worlds silver medalist

Women/67 kg:
1. Nur Tatar Askari (TUR) ~ 2017 World Champion; 2019 Worlds silver medalist
2. Hyeri Oh (KOR) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion; 2017 Worlds 73 kg silver
3. Mengyu Zhang (CHN) ~ 2019 World Champion; 2017 Worlds bronze

Women/+67 kg:
1. Bianca Walkden (GBR) ~ 2017-19 +73 kg World Champion
2. Shuyin Zheng (CHN) ~ 2019 +73 kg Worlds silver medalist; 2017 +73 kg bronze
3. Milica Mandic (SRB) ~ 2017 World 73 kg Champion

There is prize money for the medal winners in each class, of $5,000-3,000-1,000. Look for results here.