Day 2 is Golden for Iran, Korea

Day 2

The second day of the Sofia 2022 World Taekwondo Junior Championships saw Iran and Korea win two medals each.

The first final of the night drew Abolfazl Zandi from Iran against Pornpawit Toruen from Thailand in the M-48kg. The opening round set the tone for what would be a breathless and highly competitive match. With both fighters landing head kicks the round finished 15-12 to Zandi. The second round followed in the same vein but Zandi was ultimately too strong and won the second and the gold with a score of 25-12.

Korea’s Yun-seo Kim and Kazakhstan’s Aidana Sundetbay faced each other in the final of the W-46kg. There was little to split the two with Sundetbay taking the round 1312. The evenly fought match continued where it left off in deciding round, the score was 9-9 but a kick to the body from Kim secured gold for the Korean.

The M-51kg final once again brought together Korea and Kazakhstan. This time round it was not as close as it had been in the previous final as Korea’s Hui-chan Yang took the first round 17-9 against Kazakhstan’s Tamirlan Tleules. Yang continued his dominance in the second round winning 16-3 to claim gold.

Iran’s Mobina Nematzadeh and Thailand’s Kamonchanok Seeken delivered the last of the finals as they faced each other in the W-49kg. Nematzadeh put on a dominant display in the first round as she scored nine points without conceding any. In the second round, Seeken did manage to get on the scoreboard but it was not nearly