2022

This final was a fitting one for Paris: It featured home-town player Cyrian Ravet of France in his first-ever Grand Prix final. His opponent was Tunisia’s Olympic Silver Medalist Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi.

It was a patient start by both athletes, with the first points on the board not coming until half way through Round 1 when Jendoubi was forced into a series of Gam-jeoms. Ravet would hold a 2-0 lead until the end of the round Though he, too, lost a penalty, with just seconds left on the clock, he would hold on to take Round 1.

Into Round 2, it was clear Jendoubi was not going to give up the final easily. Two punches, and Jendoubi went 2-0 up. The Tunisian would remain in the lead until the final ten seconds of

China, France,Thailand

Win on Day 1 in Paris

the match with a video replay confirming Ravet’s head kick for three points. With just seconds left on the board, Ravet suffered a penalty to bring the score level at 3-3 - then Jendoubi lost a Gam-jeom to hand the lead and the gold to Ravet.

In the semis, Ravet had come back from a 9-2 deficit against Spain’s Adrian Vicenta Yunta to take the first round 10-10, causing roars from the crowd. In ferocious form, Yunta levelled the score after taking Round 2. However, Ravet claimed victory, hanging on in a closely-fought third round where two Gam-jeoms by Yunta made the difference.

In the second semifinal, Jendoubi had faced Australia’s Bailey Lewis, coming through with a convincing two-round win, despite Lewis’ valiant performance.

Day 1

The first day of action at the Paris 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix saw Thailand, China and France taking gold at the Palais des Sports Marcel-Cerdan in Levallois.

The world’s best Taekwondoin put on a show for the Grand Prix’s Paris debut, giving the city a taste of the combat sport spectacle that is to come at the Olympic Games in 2024.

The Paris GP continued the “best of three rounds” format which was pioneered at the Roma 2022 Grand Prix and which is the sport’s new norm.

The first day of competiton saw three categories contested. Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit emerged victorious in the W-49kg, while Zongshi Luo of China claimed gold in W-57kg and Cyrian Ravet triumphed in the M-58kg in front of an electric home crowd.

tanakit secured gold with a head kick to win 10-6.

In the first semifinal, Wongpattanakit had won an impressive victory against Korea’s Bora Kang. After losing the first round, the Thai fought back to take rounds two and three, and secure her spot in the final.

in the second semi, Dincel had overcome Germany’s Ela Aydin in a fierce contest that had also gone to three rounds.

WThe W-57kg brought together Skylar Park of Canada and China’s Zongshi Luo, who was coming off of an impressive gold medal performance at the Roma 2022 Grand Prix.

The first round was closely contested, with a Gam-jeom eventually breaking the deadlock to see Luo go 1-0 up. Luo and Park then traded head and body kicks, respectively, and Luo closed out the first round, 4-2.

-57 kg

In the W-49kg, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand met Turkiye’s Merve Dincel in the final. It was a calm and measured performance from Wongpattanakit who demonstrated her experience, registering the first points with a kick to the body protector. A head kick by Wongpattanakit, followed by Dincel being forced into a Gam-jeom would wrap up Round 1 in Wongpattanaki’s favour. Round 2 saw blows traded before Wongpat-

W-49 kg

Park took the lead in the second, landing a body kick to go up by two. The pair traded kicks throughout the round, with a head kick by Luo taking her score up to 6-4 proving to be the decisive one. A Gam-jeom in the final seconds saw the final finish at 7-4 with Luo claiming her second consecutive Grand-Prix medal and Park taking home her first-ever GP silver.

Luo had overcome Morroco’s Nada Laaraj in the first semifinal. while in the second semi, Park had knocked China’s Lijun Zhou out of the competition.

World Taekwondo Grand Prix

Day 2 Sees Côte d'Ivoire, Italy and Spain Triumphant

The last final of the night saw Norway’s Richard Andre Ordemann face Simone Alessio of Italy. It was an aggressive start by Alessio who took the lead with a head kick. He then forced the Norwegian into two Gam-jeoms before conceding one of his own to move the points to 5-1. Another kick to the head by the Italian would tie up the first round for Alessio, 8-1. Ordemann refused to go down without a fight, landing a kick to the head and forcing two Gam-jeoms while only conceding one to take the second round 1-5. That forced a third, deciding round.

A Gam-jeom by Ordemann gave Alessio the initial lead of 1-0 which the Norwegian tried to reverse with a head shot; it was not given after a review. Later in the round it seemed as if Ordemann had forced a Gam-jeom but this was also challenged and wiped off the scoreboard. In a twist of fate, a Gam-jeom then went in the Italian’s favor - enough to see him through to the gold medal with a tight 2-0 victory.

Ordemann had reached the final by beating Tunisia’s Firas Katousi in the first semifinal which was a match-up of two of the tallest fighters in the competition. A low-scoring round one was won 0-2 by Katousi who landed a kick to the body in the final 30 seconds.

Day 2 of the Paris 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix saw Côte d'Ivoire, Italy and Spain claiming the three golds on offer.

Côte d’Ivoire’s Ruth Gbagbi won the W-67kg, Javier Perez Polo of Spain took gold in the M-68kg and Italy’s Simone Alessio clinched the final gold of the day in the M-80kg.

Silver medals were shared between Korea, Jordan and Norway, while the bronze medals were split between Mexico, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Tunisia and USA.

In the W-67kg, Korea’s Min-seo Nam and Côte d’Ivoire’s Ruth Gbagbi, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist and world champion, met in the final. As a relatively new face on the senior Taekwondo circuit, Nam had everything to gain from her first appearance in a Grand Prix final.

The Korean took the lead in the first round, climbing to 5-0 points with a punch and two body kicks. However, the highl experienced Gbagbi is never one to be counted out of a fight, and she landed a spinning kick to Nam’s trunk protector and forced a Gam-jeom to level the scores in the final seconds of the round. By virtue of technical points from her kick, Gbagbi took the round on superiority.

In Round 2 Gbagbi had the measure of her opponent and opened the scoring with two torso kicks. Nam fought back with a punch and Gbagbi conceded a Gam-jeom to bring the score to 4-2 before the Cote d’Ivorean landed two consecutive kicks to the body to close out the final, 8-2 - and grab the gold.

In the semifinal, Nam had faced Leslie Soltero of Mexico. It was a slow start to the first round before Soltero landed two kicks to the body. However, Nam would respond with a punch and head kick to level the scores before both players conceded a Gam-jeom. Nam took Round 1 thanks to having more hits, and would use this momentum to also win Round 2 and proceed to the final.

In the second semi, Gbagbi used all of her experience to overcome Belgium’s Sarah Chaari, a World and European champ at the junior level, who this year entered the seniors. Gbagbi took Round 1 4-0 with two kicks to the body, but the Belgium battler fought back to take Round 2 with a score of 3-1. Gbagbi broke the deadlock with a torso kick, writing her name into the gold-medal match line-up.

Spain’s Javier Perez Polo and Zaid Kareem of Jordan, who had not dropped a round during all the prior bouts, clashed in the M-68kg final. It was a flawless first round from the Spaniard who took an early lead with a kick to the body. He followed this up with two more kicks to the torso protector and forced his opponent into a Gam-jeom to win Round 1, 7-0.

Perez Polo began the second, in similar fashion, landing a kick to the head followed by a body kick to go up 5-0. Kareem fought back valiantly, forcing the Spaniard into a Gam-jeom before conceding one of his own to make the score 6-1. The round ended on a 9-4 score line which secured Perez Polo his first-ever GP gold medal.

The first semifinal had seen Tokyo 2020 Silver Medalist Bradly Sinden of Great Britain fall to Kareem who took round one with a punch and Gam-jeom. Round 2 saw Sinden leading 6-4 until Kareem landed a spectacular torso kick in the final seconds to earn the first Grand Prix final of his career.

In the second semi, Perez Polo used his experience to overcome France’s Theo Lucien. The Spaniard took Round 1 3-1 with a confident display, but the Frenchman looked to channel the energy of the crowd in Round 2. Lucien got the scoring underway with a head kick, but suffered a Gam-jeom and took a kick to the body and the score was level at 3-3. An exchange of kicks saw the score move to 7-5 in Perez Polo’s favour and a Gam-jeom took the final score to 8-5.

In Round 2, both players fired kicks with neither athlete managing to find a way through. The round ended with a 0-0 tie but the Norwegian forced a deciding round via superiority. Katousi led for most of the third round with an impressive display of skill, but Ordemann connected on a last-second head kick to clinch the win 5-4.

WIn the W+67kg final, Olympic Silver Medalist Da-bin Lee of Korea took on France’s Althea Laurin. Laurin was on the hunt for France’s second gold medal of its home Grand Prix, while Lee was hunting her fourth GP title.

World Taekwondo Grand Prix

Cuba, Korea Get Gold on ‘Taekwondo Day’ in Paris

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The Paris 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix came to a close today with Korea and Cuba taking the final golds on offer in the W+67kg and M+80kg weight categories.

In addition, silver medals went to France’s Althea Laurin and Croatia’s Ivan Sapina, while bronze medals were shared be tween Brazil, Turkiye, Côte d’Ivoire and Spain.

Before the finals got underway, World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue delivered a short message to mark a date on the calendar.

“Today’s a special day as we are celebrating ‘Taekwondo Day’ around the world, “ he said. Looking forward, he continued, “Two years from now we will have the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris...we are going to deliver one of the best Olympic Taekwondo competitions to the world!”

“ Taekwondo Day” is celebrated every year on Sept. 4 in com memoration of the IOC’s decision on that date in 1994 to include the sport in the Olympics.

Cuba’s Rafael Alba, a two-time world champion and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist, would take on Ivan Sapina of Croatia in the M+80kg final.

Lee opened the scoring in round one with a body kick. The two athletes then traded fire to make the score 4-2 in Lee’s favour before Laurin forced the Korean into two Gam-jeoms to level the score at 4-4. Unshaken, Lee connected with a front leg head kick to retake the lead with a score of 7-4, but a Gam-jeom and a French kick to the torso would again level the scores to finish the round 7-7. Lee won the round on superiority.

Energised by the roar of the home crowd, Laurin put on a show to take Round 2 4-3 and grab the momentum heading into the third and final round. The Korean got the scoreboard ticking with two consecutive kicks to the body before conceding a Gam-jeom to make the score 4-1. Once again, Lee struck with a body kick to take her lead to 6-1. However, few were prepared for the spectacular spin kick to the head that Lee was about to unleash. Confirmed by video review, Lee’s lead stretched to 11-2. Laurin fought ferociously to try and claw back some points, but it was too little too late as Lee claimed gold with a convincing 15-5 win in Round 3.

In the first semifinal, Laurin had overcome a very strong Gabriele Siqueira of Brazil who had knocked out the top seed, Great Britain’s Bianca Cook, in the

Laurin got the scoring started with a kick to the body. Siqueira soon returned the favour to level the scores but it did not take long for Laurin to connect with another kick to the torso protector and then a head kick to close out Round 1, 7-2. The Brazilian would fight back to win the second, 6-8. The deciding round was just as intense as the first two, but it would be France’s Laurin who would come out on top 10-2 to secure her place in her first-ever Grand

In the second semi, Lee had taken on Turkiye’s Nafia Kus. Lee opened the scoring in Round 1 with a torso kick to the inside before the two athletes traded punches to make the score 3-1. In the final few seconds, Kus landed a kick to the body to tie the scores and win the round based on hits. Lee fought back to take the second round 6-0, a score which included an incredible head kick. In a low-scoring third round the first points did not come until the last 10 seconds with both athletes trading torso kicks. Tied 2-2, the victory went to Lee on superiority.

Alba’s class and experience was too much for Sapina in round one, with two forced Gam-jeoms and a front leg body kick by the Cuban giving him Round 1, 4-0.

Not willing to go down without a fight, Sapina put his all into the second round. The two athletes traded kicks to the body, to tie 2-2. Alba would take the lead for a short while by virtue of a Gam-jeom, but Sapina connected with a head kick in the final seconds to take the round 4-5 despite giving away a Gamjeom. In the third, deciding, round, Alba came out firing and landed a head kick and forced three Gam-jeoms to take a 6-0 lead. Sapina connected with a punch in the final seconds but it was not enough. giving Alba a well-deserved gold medal.

In the first of the semifinals, Alba had taken on Côte d’Ivoire’s legend Cheick Sallah Cisse. From the very first second of round one, both Cisse and Alba were on the attack. It was the Cuban who opened the scoring with a kick to the torso protector, but Cisse would soon return the favour to level the score. The Cote d’Ivorian looked to close out round one after forcing a Gamjeom, but it was Alba who took the round with a body kick 4-3. There second round was even more fierce than the first, but it ended prematurely after Cisse conceded five Gam-jeoms and Alba was declared the winner after a crowd-pleasing bout.

The second semi had been a masterclass between Sapina and Ivan Garcia Martinez of Spain. Sapina took the first round 3-2 after a video review confirmed his right leg kick to the back of the head. In Round 2, Garcia Martinez put the first points on the board with a body kick. Sapina connected with a punch later in the round, but was not able to take the lead. In the deciding round, the Spaniard led 3-0 but Sapina managed to claw two points back with a kick to the body before stealing the lead in the final seconds with another body kick, seeing him through to the final.