It was a dream come true for Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Tseng Li-cheng (曾櫟騁) when she overwhelmed her Finnish opponent in a shortened match to bag a bronze medal in London on Thursday.
“It’s incredible that I can represent our country in winning a coveted medal at the world’s most prominent sporting event,” the 25-year-old said.
Tseng beat Suvi Mikkonen of Finland 14-2 to take the bronze in the women’s under-57kg category, Taiwan’s second medal at the Games.
Photo: Reuters
The bout ended when Tseng pulled ahead by 12 points, 24 seconds into the third round. Competitors with a 12-point lead are automatically given a “win on points gap.”
“Knowing this would be my last bout, I gave it everything I had,” said Tseng, who entered the Olympics as the world No. 1 in her weight class. “I used all the experience and skills I had picked up over the past decade.”
A member of the Amis Aboriginal tribe, Tseng admitted that she felt a pang of regret that she could only fight for bronze, rather than gold.
Photo: Reuters
In the semi-finals, Tseng led Britain’s Jade Jones 2-1 after two rounds and she was ahead 3-2 with 45 seconds left in the bout, but two quick kicks by Jones and a penalty against Tseng put her behind 5-3 with 23 seconds to go.
Desperate to come back, Tseng launched a kick toward Jones’ head that would have been worth three points — and the lead — had it hit. When the kick was not awarded, Tseng’s coach appealed, but after a video review the appeal was rejected.
Tseng, who thought the kick hit its mark, said that if the review panel had accepted the appeal she would have had a good chance of making it into the final. Instead, she desperately flailed away in the final 15 seconds, leaving herself exposed, and Jones picked up a handful of points with precise defensive kicks to win the bout 10-6.
Jones went on to win Britain’s first Olympic taekwondo gold, beating China’s Hou Yuzhuo (侯玉琢) 6-4 in the final.
Tseng gave her coach Tang Hui-ting (湯惠婷) a hug after receiving the bronze medal. She then circled the arena, the country’s Olympic flag in hand, to greet spectators, including many Taiwanese expats who turned up to cheer her on.
“I really want to thank my coach. I wasn’t easy to deal with, but she continued to put up with me,” the bronze medalist said.
In the final, Jones, who had lost to Hou in the final of last year’s world championships, rode a strong wave of support from the home crowd to bully her way past the Chinese fighter and win Britain’s 25th gold of the Olympic Games.
The 19-year-old from north Wales grabbed British and Welsh flags from the crowd and raced around in a lap of honor as the 8,000 fans in the Excel Centre roared her on.
Jones, who won gold at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore after the people of her hometown Flint helped finance her trip for the qualifiers, said winning gold was something special.
“It feels crazy. It’s amazing and the crowd’s amazing,” she said. “To be the first [British] athlete to win Olympic [taekwondo] gold is amazing.”
Jones also paid tribute to her teammate Sarah Stevenson, who competes in the welterweight division, and said she owed everything to her coach, Paul Green.
“The coach is a legend. Without him I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said.
Green praised his charge’s work ethic and said there was more to come.
“The work this girl’s been putting in over the last six months is ridiculous. She’s been getting up at six, tears every day, but she’s a fighter and she works hard,” Green said. “She’s still got improvements to make in the game, but the future’s bright for her. She delivers under pressure.”
The first two rounds of the gold-medal match were cagey, but heading into the third Jones had sneaked a 2-0 lead.
With Hou desperate to get back on level terms, Jones bided her time and landed kicks to her opponent’s midsection to seal the gold medal.
“Before I came out, I thought I’m not letting her beat me here in front of the home crowd,” Jones said.
China’s Hou was not too disappointed to miss out on gold and conceded that Jones had been the stronger fighter.
“This is my first Olympic Games, so I’m 90 percent satisfied with the silver medal,” Huo said.
France’s Marlene Harnois won the other bronze medal.
In Thursday’s other competition, Turkey’s Servet Tazegul won the men’s featherweight gold, beating Iran’s Mohammad Baghrei Motamed 6-5 in the final.
Tazegul, the world No. 1 and Beijing bronze medalist, defeated Britain’s Martin Stamper to reach the final and was the class act of the under-68kg category.
His aggression and speed was too much for Motamed, who also lost to Tazegul in the final of last year’s world championships in South Korea.
Tazegul dedicated the gold medal to his mother, who died earlier this year.
“I lost my mother two months ago. I really wanted to get the gold for her, but it was a hard time, I did not train much, plus I had the injury,” Tazegul said.
Rohullah Nikpai, who won Afghanistan’s first Olympic medal with a bronze in Beijing, picked up another bronze through the repechage, along with Terrence Jennings of the US.
“The Olympics are always special, I’m happy. I’ll bring this medal back home,” Nikpai said. “I think that right now everyone in Afghanistan must be dancing.”
Tseng was competing in her first — and likely last — Games after just missing out on a berth in 2004 and 2008.
She is the first Taiwanese to win an Olympic medal in the women’s under-57kg category. Chi Shu-ju won a bronze in the women’s under-49kg category at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Chen Shih-hsin bagged gold in the same category in Athens in 2004.
Tseng took up taekwondo together with her siblings during her childhood. She has since taken part in many international competitions, including the East Asian Games, the Asian Games and regional and world championships.
The 25-year-old nearly missed out on her spot in London, having lost in the first round of a domestic qualifying tournament, before rallying and to win a berth in the final stage of the competition.
Tseng said her next goal is to finish her Master’s degree at National Taiwan Sport University.
Taiwanese athletes in action
Taekwondo
Women’s under-57kg
Tseng Li-cheng defeated Suvi Mikkonen of Finalnd 14-2 PTG to win the bronze medal.
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