Competition and Remembrance on Day 2 in Manchester day 2

Saturday evening at the Manchester Regional Arena saw more action at the Manchester 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix. Champions and newcomers alike took advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in front of a full house, live TV coverage in the host country, and global broadcast interest.

In the W-57kg event, crowd-favourite Jade Jones of Great Britain showed how she earned the nickname “Headhunter” by landing high kicks in each of the first two rounds against her semifinal opponent, Hatice Kubra Ilgun of Turkiye.

For the final, however, Jones encountered the formidable Zongshi Luo of China, winner of this year’s WT Grand Prix events in Rome and Paris. With a 12cm height advantage, Luo proved a significantly more difficult opponent. After each athlete had taken a round, Luo was victorious in the third, maintaining a perfect WT Grand Prix record for 2022.

Luo had overcome Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion Anastasija Zolotic of Team USA in her own semifinal.

In the M-68 kg, Ho-jun Jin of Korea won gold by defeating Jordan’s Kareem Zaid, as Jin improved on his bronze from the Roma 2022 WT Grand Prix. Zaid had benefitted from a win by injury at the semifinal stage, when Great Britain’s Bradly Sinden was forced to withdraw. Jin, meanwhile, had beaten Khalfani Harris of the USA in his own semifinal. For Harris, it was his first GP medal.

Great Britain’s Lauren Williams matched her own bronze medal from this year’s European Championships, also hosted in Manchester, in the W-67kg event. Winning her own bronze, Czech athlete Petra Stolbova won her first Grand Prix medal.

The final saw Serbia’s Aleksandra Perisic win her first GP medal, too – silver – as France’s Magda Wiet Henin took the win and her second gold of the series this year. Wiet Henin had previously won in Rome.

As the evening started, the WT president, officials, athletes and spectators took time to commemorate Greek athlete Alexandros Nikolaidis, who had passed away the week prior.

Alexandros Nikolaidis: RIP (Oct. 17, 1979 – Oct. 14, 2022)

On Oct. 14, 2022, Greek Olympic Medalist Alexandros Nikolaidis passed away at the young age of 42. Nikolaidis won two Olympic silvers: The first before a home audience at Athens 2004, and then again at Beijing 2008. He was named 2008 Greek Male Athlete of the Year. On March 24, 2008, Nikolaidis also had the honour of becoming the first torchbearer of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, when the event began its journey around the world in Olympia, Greece.

He is sadly missed by all at World Taekwondo.