The third of five World Taekwondo Grand Prix tournaments in 2018 marked the first ever in Chinese Taipei, in Taoyuan. But the headline was the same: three wins for the Koreans.
Thrice World Champion Dae-Hoon Lee set a new standard for the Grand Prix, winning the men’s -68 kg class for his second Grand Prix win this season and his 10th career Grand Prix win, the most ever. The Koreans also got wins from three-time World Champion Tae-Hun Kim at -58 kg and Da-Bin Lee in the women’s +67 kg class.
American Paige McPherson also made history by winning the women’s -67 kg class, the first win by a U.S. fighter in a Grand Prix since Jackie Galloway won in Samsun (TUR) in the +67 kg class in 2015. It’s the third-ever U.S. Grand Prix win, as Galloway also won one of the 2014 tournaments.
It wasn’t easy, as McPherson, the London 2012 bronze medalist in this class, fell behind Russia’s Polina Khan, 6-2, after one period. In fact, McPherson was down 7-5 in the third round, with 35 seconds left. But she scored a body kick with 10 seconds left for a 7-7 and overtime, known as “Golden Point” in Taekwondo. But neither scored and McPherson won by having fewer penalties during the match!
The fourth installment comes from 19-21 October in Manchester (GBR). Summaries:
World Taekwondo Grand Prix
Taoyuan (CHN) ~ 19-21 September 2018
(Full results here)
Men
-58 kg: 1. Tae-Hun Kim (KOR); 2. Jesus Tortosa Cabrera (ESP); 3. Jun Jang (KOR) and Mikhail Artamonov (RUS).
-68 kg: 1. Dae-Hoon Lee (KOR); 2. Mirhashem Hosseini (IRI); 3. Edval Pontes (BRA) and Yu-Jen Huang (TPE).
-80 kg: 1. Maksim Khramtcov (RUS); 2. Cheick Sallah Cisse (CIV); 3. Damon Sansum (GBR) and Seif Eissa (EGY).
+80 kg: 1. Vladislav Larin (RUS); 2. Anthony Mylann Obame (GHA); 3. Mahama Cho (GBR) and Hongyi Sun (CHN).
Women
-49 kg: 1. Panipak Wongpattanakit (THA); 2. So-Hui Kim (KOR); 3. Kristina Tomic (CRO) and Rukiye Yildrim (TUR).
-57 kg: 1. Irem Yaman (TUR); 2. Raheleh Asemani (BEL); 3, Inese Tarvida (LAT) and Zongshi Luo (CHN).
-67 kg: 1. Paige McPherson (USA); 2. Polina Khan (RUS); 3. Jan-Di Kim (KOR) and Hyeri Oh (KOR).
+67 kg: 1. Da-Bin Lee (KOR); 2. Bianca Walkden (GBR); 3. Nafia Kus (TUR) and Shuyin Zheng (CHN).