Seo Geon-woo finished fourth in men’s taekwondo on Friday, coming up a win short of giving South Korea its third straight medal in the sport at the Paris Olympics.
Seo lost to Edi Hrnic of Denmark 2-0 (15-2, 11-8) in one of two bronze medal matches for the men’s -80-kilogram event at Grand Palais in the French capital.
Seo was the first South Korean to compete in this weight class since taekwondo became an Olympic medal sport in 2000.
Earlier Friday, Seo had lost to Mehran Barkhordari of Iran 2-1 (2-4, 13-9, 12-8) in the semifinals to fall to the bronze medal match.
Olympic taekwondo matches are fought over two-minute rounds in a best-of-three format.
Against Hrnic, Seo found himself down 6-0 after just 22 seconds, with the Danish athlete connecting for three successive kicks to the body. Hrnic then got a three-point kick to the head at the end to win the round 15-2.
It was much the same story in the second round, with Hrnic going up 6-0 within the opening 21 seconds. Seo made it an 8-6 match with 45 s
econds remaining, but gave away a point due to “gam-jeom,” or warning, before Hrnic scored two huge points with a kick to the body with eight seconds left.
Before Seo, South Korea had collected two gold medals over the first two days of taekwondo, with Park Tae-joon winning the men’s -58kg title and Kim Yu-jin taking home the women’s -57kg gold medal.
Source: Yonhap News Agency