Taiwan’s Chen Po-yen won bronze at the World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday, beating top opponents in the men’s under-54kg division before falling to world No. 3 Omar Salim of Hungary.
Unlike past competitions when the total score over three 2-minute rounds was added up to determine the victor, this year’s world championships adopted a new best-of-three scoring system in which the first person to win two rounds was declared the winner.
Chen seemed to thrive in the new system.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Making his world championships debut in the lightest weight category for men, Chen opened with a 2-0 (13-0, 12-2) win over Thomas Mansell of Nicaragua in the round of 64, then upset world No. 8 Tom Pashcovsky of Israel 2-1 (3-2, 5-10, 12-1) and secured a 2-1 (5-3, 0-5, 14-7) win over world No. 42 Loay Ihmedan of Jordan in the round of 16.
In the quarter-finals he dispatched world No. 2 Josip Teskera in just two rounds (6-2, 13-8).
Chen’s run came to an end in the semi-finals when Salim beat him 2-1 (10-2, 6-7, 3-1).
Photo: EPA-EFE
The round Chen won against Salim was only one of two that the Hungarian lost in five bouts on his way to claiming the under-54kg gold medal.
Chen’s bronze is the second medal won by Taiwan at the event. Olympic medalist Lo Chia-ling grabbed silver in the women’s under-57kg division on Monday last week.
Taiwan only won a silver in 2017 and took home nothing in 2019.
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