By Pau Aguilar of Spain

Bianca Walkden (W+73) conquers her third world crown in a controversial fight, while Bradly Sinden tastes glory at home as the new M-68 kg king

The local crowd at Manchester Arena exploded after two of their favorite players won gold on Manchester 2019 World Championships Friday evening action. Queen B, the former double world champion, is now the triple world champion after getting rid of her toughest rival, Shuyin Zheng from China, in a controversial match that was defined by the decisions of the referee. The second local hero of the day was Bradly Sinden, who climbed to the top of the podium after edging Javier Perez from Spain in a spectacular match which was finally decide by small details. The third champion of the 3rd day of action was another Korean, the fourth winner in the event, Jun-seo Bae, who was crowned as the new Men’s -54 king after smashing Popov from Russia.

Day 2 – Finals

Women’s +73 kg

1 – Bianca Walkden (GBR)
2 – Shuyin Zheng (CHN)
3 – Briseida Acosta (MEX)
3 – Doris Pole (CRO)

Bianca Walkden was crowned world champion for the third time in a dramatic and controversial match that was clearly in control of her opponent, the reigning Olympic champion Shuyin Zheng from China. Zheng was leading 16-6 at the end of the second round, but she had been given five gam-jeons by the referee. In the third period, Walkden tried to overcome her disadvantage by making her opponent accumulate 10 penalties so that the Chinese would be disqualified. And Walkden managed to do so by forcing Zheng to step out of the ring in 4 more occasions (with 20-11 for the Chinese), but part of the crowd thought she was grabbing her opponent while doing so and started to boo. When the referee declared the end of the match, the Chinese representative started to cry and was completely devastated, asking the organization for the gold medal, which she found the fair thing to do. Zheng couldn’t even stand on the podium because of the sadness, while Walkden tried to cope with the uncomfortable situation by saying she only “did her job”. A dramatic and awkward scene for all Taekwondo fans.

Men’s -68 kg

1 – Bradly Sinden (GBR)
2 – Javier Perez Polo (ESP)
3 – Alexey Denisenko (RUS)
3 – Dae-hoon Lee (KOR)

Bradly Sinden became the new Men’s -68 kg champion after a hard battle against Javier Perez from Spain which ended up with a close 24-21. The whole match was close throughout the 5:30 first minutes, with both players taking short leads and exchanging spectacular kicks. The Spaniard led the first period by 8-6, but Sinden reacted and turned the score around after 4 minutes (15-13). The key for the British win was a head shot connected with 30 seconds left that put the 19-15. Since then, Sinden just took advantage of Perez’s desperation and controlled the tempo to win the gold.

Men’s -54 kg

1 – Jun-seo Bae (KOR)
2 – Georgy Popov (RUS)
3 – Armin Hadipour (IRI)
3 – Paulo Melo (BRA)

Jun-seo Bae grabbed the fourth gold of the day for Korea in the event as he easily got rid of Georgy Popov from Russia by a clear and spectacular 53-24. The Korean was always in charge of the fight and managed to take comfortable leads since the very beginning thanks to his extremely quick moves which ended with precise head and body kicks all around. The Russian tried hard to shorten the lead, but the opposite happened.

Day 3 – Semi-finals

Women’s -49 kg

– Panipak Wongpattankit (THA)
– Jingyu Wu (CHN)
3 – Rukiye Yildirim (TUR)
3 – Kristina Tomic (CRO)

The current Olympic bronze and world champion Panipak Wongpattanakit proved to be stronger than the Turkish representative, Rukiye Yildirim, in the first Semi-final of the session, grabbing a ticket to the final by 25-14. The Thai representative gained a significant advantage at the beginning of the fight thanks to a head kick and some body kicks and managed to keep it until the end, when she avoided Yildirim’s attacks by avoiding the fight, which caused her accumulating some gam-jeons. The rounds finished 2-7, 9-15 and 14-25.

Wongpattanakit’s opponent in the final was going to be decided in the second battle of the evening: Jingyu Wu (CHN), double Olympic champion, versus Kristina Tomic (CRO), a place which was more deserved by the Asian, who clearly won the battle by 30-12. While Tomic, European champion, tried her best, Wu confirmed she is back with full energy after giving birth to her child and smashed the Croatian with her quick and powerful headand body shots. Three head shots in the first round were the key for the win.

Men’s -74 kg

– Ahmad Abughaush (JOR)
– Simone Alessio (ITA)
3 – Daniel Quesada (ESP)
3 – Kairat Sarymsakov (KAZ)

The first Men’s clash of the evening session was really tight and confronted Simone Alessio from Italy and Daniel Quesada from Spain. The Spaniard dominated the first round thanks to a strong body shot with his right leg, while the Italian could only score through a penalty. In the second period, both players rised their level and exchanged accurate kicks (3 body kicks and 1 head shot by the Italian and two body kicks by the Spaniard) to leave the scoreboard 7-10. In the last 2 minutes, Alessio took advantage of his height and Quesada’s desperate attempts to recover to end it up 18-10.

The second place in the final was decided in a less changing fight and was taken by no other than the reigning Olympic champion Ahmad Abughaush from Jordan (JOR). The Rio 2016 sensation defeated Kairat Sarymsakov from Kazakhstan after connecting two unstoppable body kicks during the regular time. He also took advantage of 4 gam-jeon to achieve 8 points in total. Sarymsakov could only find the Jordan’s head once and couldn’t level the scoreaboard (8-3).

Men’s -68 kg

– Jade Jones (GBR)
– Ah-reum Lee (KOR)
3 – Lijun Zhou (CHN)
3 – Skylar Park (CAN)

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones’ unfinished business with the world championships might by about to end as the British star outscored world junior champion and Pan American queen Skylar Park by 16-12 in the other semi-final. The combat was a thriller that wasn’t decided until the very end, with Park being in front of the scoreboard for some time, but Jones took advantage of her expercience and connected two consecutive body kicks in the final seconds to make the crowd at Manchester Arena explode and avanced to her first world championship final.

World and Asian champion Ah-reum Lee will be able to defend her title tomorrow after struggling to beat last year’s Grand Slam champion Lijun Zhou from China by 15-12 in the other semi-final. The first four minutes of the fight ended up with a tie to 9 on the scoreboard, but Lee was able to gain a 4 point lead thanks to two body kicks in the last period, an advantage that was quickly cut by Zhou through a head kick (13-12), but another body shot by the Korean with 3 seconds left made the difference.

Tomorrow will be the day for the Finals of these three divisions and for the beginning of the Women’s -53, -67 kg and Men’s -63 and -80 kg categories, which will complete their draw until the Final round.

Bianca Walkden (W+73) conquers her third world crown in a controversial fight, while Bradley Sinden tastes glory at home as the new M-68 kg king

The local crowd at Manchester Arena exploded after two of their favorite players won gold on Manchester 2019 World Championships Friday evening action. Queen B, the former double world champion, is now the triple world champion after getting rid of her toughest rival, Shuyin Zheng from China, in a controversial match that was defined by the decisions of the referee. The second local hero of the day was Bradley Sinden, who climbed to the top of the podium after edging Javier Perez from Spain in a spectacular match which was finally decide by small details. The third champion of the 3rd day of action was another Korean, the fourth winner in the event, Jun-seo Bae, who was crowned as the new Men’s -54 king after smashing Popov from Russia.

Day 1 – Finals

Women’s +73 kg

1 – Bianca Walkden (GBR)
2 – Shuyin Zheng (CHN)
3 – Briseida Acosta (MEX)
3 – Doris Pole (CRO)

Bianca Walkden was crowned world champion for the third time in a dramatic and controversial match that was clearly in control of her opponent, the reigning Olympic champion Shuyin Zheng from China. Zheng was leading 16-6 at the end of the second round, but she had been given seven gam-jeoms by the referee. In the third period, Walkden tried to overcome her disadvantage by making her opponent accumulate 10 penalties so that the Chinese would be disqualified. And Walkden managed to do so by forcing Zheng to step out of the ring in 4 more occasions (with 48 seconds left and 20-11 for the Chinese), but part of the crowd thought she was grabbing her opponent while doing so and started to boo. When the referee declared the end of the match, the Chinese representative started to cry and was completely devastated, asking the organization for the gold medal, which she found the fair thing to do. Zheng couldn’t even stand on the podium because of the sadness, while Walkden tried to cope with the uncomfortable situation by saying she only “did her job”. A dramatic and awkward scene for all Taekwondo fans.

Men’s -68 kg

1 – Bradley Sinden (GBR)
2 – Javier Perez Polo (ESP)
3 – Alexey Denisenko (RUS)
3 – Dae-hoon Lee (KOR)

Bradley Sinden became the new Men’s -68 kg champion after a hard battle against Javier Perez from Spain which ended up with a close 24-21. The whole match was close throughout the 5:30 first minutes, with both players taking short leads and exchanging spectacular kicks. The Spaniard led the first period by 8-6, but Sinden reacted and turned the score around after 4 minutes (15-13). The key for the British win was a head shot connected with 30 seconds left that put the 19-15. Since then, Sinden just took advantage of Perez’s desperation and controlled the tempo to win the gold.

Men’s -54 kg

1 – Jun-seo Bae (KOR)
2 – Georgy Popov (RUS)
3 – Armin Hadipour (IRI)
3 – Paulo Melo (BRA)

Jun-seo Bae grabbed the fourth gold of the day for Korea in the event as he easily got rid of Georgy Popov from Russia by a clear and spectacular 53-24. The Korean was always in charge of the fight and managed to take comfortable leads since the very beginning thanks to his extremely quick moves which ended with precise head and body kicks all around. The Russian tried hard to shorten the lead, but the opposite happened.

Day 2 – Semifinals

Women’s -49 kg

– Panipak Wongpattankit (THA)
– Jingyu Wu (CHN)
3 – Rukiye Yildirim (TUR)
3 – Kristina Tomic (CRO)

The current Olympic bronze and world champion Panipak Wongpattanakit proved to be stronger than the Turkish representative, Rukiye Yildirim, in the first Semi-final of the session, grabbing a ticket to the final by 25-14. The Thai representative gained a significant advantage at the beginning of the fight thanks to a head kick and some body kicks and managed to keep it until the end, when she avoided Yildirim’s attacks by avoiding the fight, which caused her accumulating some gam-jeoms. rounds finished 2-7, 9-15 and 14-25.

Wongpattanakit’s opponent in the final was going to be decided in the second battle of the evening: Jingyu Wu (CHN), double Olympic champion, versus Kristina Tomic (CRO), a place which was more deserved by the Asian, who clearly won the battle by 30-12. While Tomic, European champion, tried her best, Wu confirmed she is back with full energy after giving birth to her child and smashed the Croatian with her quick and powerful headand body shots. Three head shots in the first round were the key for the win.

Men’s -74 kg

– Ahmad Abughaush (JOR)
– Simone Alessio (ITA)
3 – Daniel Quesada (ESP)
3 – Kairat Sarymsakov (KAZ)

The first Men’s clash of the evening session was really tight and confronted Simone Alessio from Italy and Daniel Quesada from Spain. The Spaniard dominated the first round thanks to a strong body shot with his right leg, while the Italian could only score through a penalty. In the second period, both players rised their level and exchanged accurate kicks (3 body kicks and 1 head shot by the Italian and two body kicks by the Spaniard) to leave the scoreboard 7-10. In the last 2 minutes, Alessio took advantage of his height and Quesada’s desperate attempts to recover to end it up 18-10.

The second place in the final was decided in a less changing fight and was taken by no other than the reigning Olympic champion Ahmad Abughaush from Jordan (JOR). The Rio 2016 sensation defeated Kairat Sarymsakov from Kazakhstan after connecting two unstoppable body kicks during the regular time. He also took advantage of 4 gam-jeom to achieve 8 points in total. Sarymsakov could only find the Jordan’s head once and couldn’t level the scoreaboard (8-3).

Men’s -68 kg

– Jade Jones (GBR)
– Ah-reum Lee (KOR)
3 – Lijun Zhou (CHN)
3 – Skylar Park (CAN)

Double Olympic champion Jade Jones’ unfinished business with the world championships might by about to end as the British star outscored world junior champion and Pan American queen Skylar Park by 16-12 in the other semi-final. The combat was a thriller that wasn’t decided until the very end, with Park being in front of the scoreboard for some time, but Jones took advantage of her expercience and connected two consecutive body kicks in the final seconds to make the crowd at Manchester Arena explode and avanced to her first world championship final.

World and Asian champion Ah-reum Lee will be able to defend her title tomorrow after struggling to beat last year’s Grand Slam champion Lijun Zhou from China by 15-12 in the other semi-final. The first four minutes of the fight ended up with a tie to 9 on the scoreboard, but Lee was able to gain a 4 point lead thanks to two body kicks in the last period, an advantage that was quickly cut by Zhou through a head kick (13-12), but another body shot by the Korean with 3 seconds left made the difference.

Tomorrow will be the day for the Finals of these three divisions and for the beginning of the Women’s -53, -67 kg and Men’s -63 and -80 kg categories, which will complete their draw until the Final round.