Preliminary Battles Commence in Riyadh

Last big event of the year offers precious metal, precious points

WT President Speaks on Path to Paris 2024

2022 is coming to an action-packed end as Taekwondo’s elite compete toe to toe, kick to kick, at the Riyadh 2022 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final. The event is the first GP Final to be held since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first time any GP event

World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue and Secretary General Jeong kang Seo, along with the World Taekwondo Technical Committee, today met with elite coaches in Riyadh discuss the sport’s direction and development en route to Paris 2024.

“We have changed the rules of competition for every Olympic Games to make it more dynamic, more attractive for the athletes and fans, and more media friendly,” Choue said. “We will continue to evaluate our rules and how we can implement changes to make Taekwondo even more fun and exciting, while en suring it remains fair and transparent.”

Given that it is the coaches who have to adapt to every change, Choue wel comed their views.

“We will create regular occasions to exchange insights and reflect the proposals of coaches on the rules and policies,” he promised.

Today, the preliminaries in all eight Olympic weight categories – four men, four women – were contested today in Riyadh’s Green Halls stadium. Tomorrow, all

To honor the location of the event, a special presentation was made during a break in the action to seven Saudi athletes who have competed at the

They included players in the Olympics, the Youth Olympics, the Cadet and Junior World Championships - as well as Saudi’s most successful-ever Taekwondo athlete, Dunya Ali m Abutaleb, who won bronze at last month’s World Championships in Guadalajara. She was described as a “history maker” by

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Dec. 10, 2022)

Jordan was the only nation to grab two golds at this championship.

In addition to adding precious medal to their trophy cabinets and points to their rankings, today’s gold, silver and bronze medalists won USD6,000, USD3,000 and USD1,000, respectively, in prize money.

Olympic double Gold Medalist Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand took on Team Turkiye’s rising star Merve Dincel, who has no top-tier victories under her belt. The Turk came to fight but the Thai’s experience, distancing and head-seeking frontleg kick granted her gold with a very clean, clear victory in the second round.

The category’s bronze was won by Adriana Cerezo Iglesias of Spain.

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In a highly entertaining match, Team Italy’s World Champion and two-time GP Winner Simone Alessio was pitted against Team Korea’s up-and-comer Geon-woo Seo, who has a single GP gold to his credit.

The Italian, wielding a height advantage, won Round 1 from a game Seo, who sought to negate the Alessio’s leg length by fighting up-close and personal. Seo, showcasing a high work rate, decisively won the second by fighting tightly. In the third, Alessio relied on his experience and head kick to hold off a spirited challenge from the Korean, taking gold.

Seif Eissa of Egypt won bronze.

-49kg +67kg

In another veteran-versus rookie fight, threetime World Champion and five-time GP Winner Bianca “Queen Bee” Cook, 31, of Team GB, took on 17-year-old Youth World Champion – and MVP at the Sofia Junior Worlds - Sude Yaren Uzuncavdar of Team Turkiye.

The first two rounds were tactical, low-scoring fights with each fighters winning one. In the third the young Turk accelerated her work rate, piled on the pressure and won gold from the tired-looking Britm who was nursing an injury. Keep an eye on the rising young Turkish star.

This matchup pitted Olympic silver medalist Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi of Tunisia against double World Champion and six-time GP Winner Jun Jang of Korea. In a closely-scored match, Jang took the first round. In the second, he drew ahead with a lateround blitzkrieg that put him 4-1 up on the board. In a tense, final-seconds drama, two IVRs were requested, but Jang stayed ahead, decisively grabbing gold in Round 2. Cyrian Ravet of France won bronze.

This category also broke the “star vs. challenger” paradigm, as two veterans went to head to head: China’s World Champion and Multiple GP Winner Zongshi Luo took on Team Turkiye’s veteran and Double GP Champion Hatice Kubra Ilgun. The long, leggy Luo is a front-leg point machine, but Kubra Ilgun won Round 1 by fighting forward with varied techniques. Luo switched up a gear and won Round 2. The third was very closely contested –but the Chinese won gold on superiority. Luo currently looks unbeatable in this category.

Bronze was taken by Skylar Park of Canada.

Côte d’Ivoire’s popular Olympic Champion and four-time GP Winner Cheick Sallah Cisse took on Mexico’s Carlos Sansores. Sansores is current world champion, but has had less luck in tourneys outside Pan America. The African was giving away a 20kg weight difference (!) but was active and aggressive, establishing a clear lead and taking Round 1 after a high-scoring battle.

In the second, Cisse mixed up punches and body kicks, taking gold in Round 2 – to the crowd’s delight.

Dejan Georgievski of North Macedonia had to be satisfied with bronze.

China’s Mengyu Zhang took on Jordan’s Julyana Al-Sadeq in a clash of styles: Chinese front-leg precision vs. Jordanian energy and ambidextrous play. The latter prevailed. Al-Sadeq won both the first and the second rounds – then cartwheeled across the mats to celebrate her gold victory.

Bronze was taken by Magda Wiet-Henin of France.

This looked like an easy win for current Olympic and Asian Champion Ulugbek Rashitov of Uzbekistan, taking on Zaid Kareem of Jordan who has just two GP silvers in his trophy cabinet. But both men are highly active athletes and their fight promised to be a scorcher. It was.

Kareem took Round 1, which ended 7-7, on superiority after a battle of dueling legs and whirling spin kicks. Rashitov fought back and took Round 2, 11-5. It went down to Round 3 – and gold for Kareem, who won it after an explosive edge-of-mats combat in the final seconds.

In a nice display of sportsmanship, both players and their coaches posed together at the conclusion of the fight. Hakan Recber of Turkiye took the bronze.