Grand Prix Returns to the City of Gladiators

The long COVID pandemic receded into the rear view mirror as the Roma 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix got underway with China, Korea and Turkiye taking the first three gold medals on offer at the iconic Foro Italico venue.

It was the first Grand Prix to be held since 2019. It was also the first time the Grand Prix has been conducted with the new “best of three rounds” format which requires athletes to battle with maximum effort from start to finish, maximizing Taekwondo’s potential as a combat sport spectacle.

Day 1’s action was spread across the W-57kg and the M-58kg and M-68kg. China’s Zongshi Luo won gold in the W-57kg, Korea’s Jun Jang won the M-58kg and Turkiye’s Hakan Recber won the M-68kg.

-57kg

The W-57kg final brought together Double Olympic Gold Meda list Jade Jones of Great Britain and China’s Luo, who was returning to competitive Taekwondo for the first time since winning bronze at the World Taekwondo Grand Slam in Wuxi in 2019.

In the first round, Jones came out the more aggressive, but it was Luo who registered the first points with a kick to the body protector. Consecutive body kicks extended Luo’s lead before Jones pegged her back with a spinning kick to the body. However, Luo took advantage of her height and leg advantage to land head kicks and

Luo took an early 2-0 lead in the second. A head kick from Jones momentarily put her ahead before Luo pulled it back and the score was tied at 5-5. The board remained close until the closing moments when Jones, searching for the winning kick, suffered a string of penalties. Luo won the round 12-5 to win the fight and take gold,

In the earlier semifinals, Team USA’s Tokyo 2020 Champion Anastasija Zolotic had faced Jones. Zolotic won the first round after Jones had taken an early lead, only for Jones to tie the match by winning a hard fought-second round before taking the third and

In the second semifinal, Canada’s Skylar Park faced Luo. Park was coming off the back of gold medals this year in the Sofia 2022 Open and Pan American Championships, but despite those recent successes, Luo proved too strong and won the first and second rounds to take the match decisively.

Grand Prix

-58kg

Tokyo 2020 Bronze Medalist Hakan Recber from Turkiye with Sweden’s Ali Alian. Recber made an early signal of intent with a kick to the head to take a 3-0 lead. Three Gam-jeoms brought the score to 4-2 in Recber’s favour and from there he never looked like being caught as he extended his lead to win the first round 9-4. The second round began with another early strike from Recber, this time a punch to the protector. With the two fighters grappling to get an advantage, both gave away a number of Gam-jeoms. But once again it was Recber who was able to make it count as he landed a kick to the body to take a 6-1 lead which he steadily extended before winning the round, and the match, 10-3.

Recber had faced Tokyo 2020 Silver Medalist Bradley Sinden of Great Britain in the semifinal. Sinden had managed to outdo Recber at Tokyo 2020 but the Turk was keen to avoid a repeat of that in Rome 2022 and overcame the Brit in the first and second rounds.

The second of the semis saw Alian face Korea’s Ho-Jun Jin. Jin took a commanding lead in the first round but was not able to build in the second round as he failed to land a point against the Swede. Alian won the final round to take the match and move into the final.

-68kg