Son Taejin (red) of South Korea competes in Men -68kg Gold Medal contest against Mark Lopez of the U.S. at USTB Gymnasium in Beijing, China, Aug. 21, 2008. Son Taejin defeated Mark Lopez by final score 3-2 and won the gold medal of the event. (Xinhua)Son Tae-jin won the men's 68kg category in the Olympic taekwondo tournament on Thursday, 10 minutes after his compatriot Lim Su-jeong claimed the women's 57kg class title.
Son, 20, had a narrow win of 3-2 over Mark Lopez of the United States. The desicive point was scored in the last second of the third round.
"I felt so good during the match. I thought I could win," he said.
Son took the lead in the first round, scoring two points with roundhouse kicks. Lopez got one point with an axe kick on Son's shoulder in the second round, and started to change his tactics.
Lopez, who is taller than Son, tried to keep a proper distance to make effective attacks, while Son tried to get close to the opponent, which made him get a one point deduction.
In the last round, the two launched a series of attacks to each other and got one point each during the scuffle. Then Son kicked first.
The overjoyed burst into tears when hugging with his grey-haired coach, who also cried.
"I thought I would be very happy after the gold medal, but now I know for sure," he said.
The newly-crowned said he had a very hard time after losing in the first round at last year's world championships, and hesitated and thought about whether to continue the training.
"My coach encouraged me to keep going," he said.
Mark Lopez complained the referees politely after the game and said he got to be happy with the silver.
"It (taekwondo) is a subjective sport and humans make errors so it's something I have to deal with and hold my head high," he said.
"With South Korea you have to go over and beyond to beat them," he said.
For Mark, competing together with his brothers and sister at the Olympics is the most important.
"Above everything I am here at the Olympic Games with my family," he said, proudly.
"It's not over yet, my brother (Steven Lopez) is still going to compete for us and win the gold," said the 26-year-old.
The bronze was shared by Sung Yu-chi of Chinese Taipei and Turkish player Servet Tazegul.
It's the second bronze Chinese Taipei got in taekwondo which started on Wednesday.
"Today's achievements will be a perfect graduation ceremony to me and also to my father who is my coach," said Sung, who will retire from the sport after the Olympics.
On the first day of the events, Chu Mu-yen got the bronze in the men's 58kg class.
Source: Xinhua
