ATLANTA (Pajhwok): Bagging one silver and two bronze medals, Afghanistan have finished runners-up in the World Taekwondo Festival in South Korea.
Zabihullah Shahzad, Afghanistan Taekwondo Federation’s spokesmen, wrote on his Facebook page, Afghan athletes participated in the festival on August 18 in 63 and 80 kilogram categories. Bezhan Sadrzadeh beat his Kazakh opponent and advanced to the final round.
He added Sadrzadeh faced South Korea’s Hwan Young Kim in the final round. Hwan won the title of S Korea World Taekwondo Festival in two straight sets.
In the 80 kilogram weight category, Ramesh Hosseini from Afghanistan secured a draw before meeting Kazakhstan’s Eldar Berimbai, who has twice contested the world championships and won 11 international medals.
Ramesh succeeded in the first round.the In the second round, Ramesh stayed ahead of his opponent until dying moments. However, he led his opponent 9-8 and was declared the winner of the third round.
In the final round, Ramesh’s rival scored nine points and headed into the final. Ramesh won a bronze medal.
Omed Sahak, another Afghan athlete also played in the 80 kilograms weight category, drew the first round and then faced South Korean opponent Jin Su Choi.
Sahak lost the first round, but managed to defeat Jin by 14-12 in the second. The match thus went into the third round.
Until the last seconds, both athletes remained neck and neck, but that round ended in favor of the Korean player. Sahak lost the third round and took a bronze medal.
The Afghan team comprised of Mohsen Rezaee & Omed Sahak will face a South Korean side in the semi-final round tomorrow.
If they won, the Afghans would head into the final round of the World Taekwondo Festival, Shahzad added.
Afghan athletes will also enter the ring tomorrow in individual competitions. Rezaee will take on Shahzeb Khan from Pakistan in the 58 kg category and Ramin Amini will face the winner of the Mongolia-South Korea match in the 54 kilograms category.
At the end of yesterday’s duels, World Taekwondo Federation head Choi Chung Won talked to players and technical staff of the Afghan team. He appreciated their wins and medals and congratulated the side.
Grand Master Muhammad Usman Dildar, the chairman of the Para-taekwondo Committee of the International Taekwondo Federation, participated as special guest in the event.
He extolled Afghan athletes for shining in the competition and congratulated them on their achievements.
Afghan players, who left three weeks ago for South Korea, have bagged six medals, two silver and four bronze, in the Kim Onyong Cup.
The cup in Chuncheon features 220 taekwondo athletes from 30 countries. Afghanistan have also won the gold medal in the heavyweight category for the first time.
Afghanistan will compete in the World Festival tomorrow and the day after before returning home on August 20.
The leadership and all members of ATF congratulated the entire nation on the wins and hoped for more achievements.
