Day 5 is Golden for Belgium, Iran, Korea

Day 5

Iran and Korea added to their ever-increasing gold tallies on the fifth day of competition at the Sofia 2022 World Taekwondo Junior Championships, with Belgium winning the fourth title on offer.

Korea won golds in the M-78kg and W-59kg, Iran took gold in the M-73kg and Belgium was victorious at W-63kg. Turkiye, Great Britain, France and Iran won silvers; Morocco, Croatia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Chinese Taipei, Greece, Serbia and Ukraine won the bronze medals.

In the M-73kg, Reza Kalhor from Iran and Munir Furkan Dogru faced each other. Kalhor got off to a strong start winning the round 9-3. In the second, Kalhor continued his strong form and won Round 2 11-1, to win gold.

Korea’s Hanna Lee faced Great Britain’s Neve McPhillie in the second final, the W-59kg. Lee stamped her authority on the first round winning by a commanding score of 12-0. McPhillie fought back in the second round but Lee proved too strong and won the round, and gold, 9-5.

The third final of the day saw Mohamed Mendy from France face Korea’s In-hyuk Lee. It was a strong opening round with both fighters exchanging blows, but Lee came out on top 11-8. The second round was a very high scoring affair but Lee proved too strong and won gold with a win of 23-15.

The W-63kg saw Saghar Moradi Sheikhlar from Iran matched against Sarah Chaari of Belgium. In the opening round Moradi Sheikhlar won with a score of 15-8. Chaari fought back in the second round winning with a narrow victory of 9-8. Chaari maintained her momentum in the third round and won 10-6, to take gold. As events in Guadalajara would soon prove, it would not be Chaari’s sole world title of 2022.