Pneumatised!

China’s Wu Jingyu defeats Thailand’s Buttree Puedpong capturing the gold medal in the women’s 49 kg and leaving Puedpong with a silver medal. The score was 1-(-1). Thailand’s Puedpong’s fight record in the contest was 1-0 over Cuba (won in overtime), 2-1 over Vietnam (won in overtime), and a win by superiority over Venezuela (the score was 2-2). China’s Wu’s fight record in the contest was 7-0 over Kenya, 8-1 over Sweden, and 4-1 over Chinese Taipei. Based on contest history, it looked like Wu was the dominant competitor going in. Puedpong gave Wu a run for the gold though, but unfortunately Puedpong couldn’t land a solid back kick on Wu.

Bronze medals went to Venezuela’s Dalia Contreras Rivero and Cuba’s Daynellis Montejo.

After losing the semi-final match to Thailand’s Puedpong, Contreras Rivero defeated Kenya’s Mildred Alango to win the bronze by a score of 1-0. Alango, after losing the preliminary match to China’s Wu, won by superiority over Sweden’s Hanna Zajc in the repechage round (Sweden’s Zajc lost to China’s Wu in the quarterfinals.)

Cuba’s Daynellis Montejo, having lost the preliminary match to Thailand’s Puedpong, surprised the audience and taekwondo fans by defeating Chinese Taipei’s Yang Shu-Chun, who was defeated in the semi-finals by China’s Wu. Montejo won the bronze 3-2 in overtime.

In the men’s 58 kg, Mexico’s Guillermo Perez won over Dominican Republic’s Yulis Gabriel Mercedes by superiority (the score was 1-1). In taekwondo, if a tie remains after sudden death overtime, the winner is determined by the Rule of Superiority. The more aggressive competitor is considered to be superior. The judges and the referee determined it was Perez who was superior in this match leaving Mercedes with a silver. Dominican Republic’s Mercedes’ fight record in the contest was 3-0 over Portugal, 3-2 over Chinese Taipei, and 3-2 over Spain (won in overtime). Mexico’s Perez’ fight record in the contest was 3-2 over Great Britain (won in overtime), 2-1 over Afghanistan, and 3-1 over Thailand.

Bronze medals went to Afghanistan’s Rohullah Nikpai and Chinese Taipei’s Chu Mu-Yen in the men’s 58 kg.

After losing the quarterfinals to Mexico’s Perez, Afghanistan’s Nikpai first defeated Great Britain’s Michael Harvey in the repechage round. (Harvey lost the preliminary match against Mexico’s Perez.) Nikpai went on to the bronze medal match defeating Spain’s Juan Antonio Ramos, who lost in the semifinal match to Dominican Republic’s Mercedes. Nikpai won the bronze by a score of 4-1.

Chinese Taipei’s Chu lost the quarterfinal match to Dominican Republic’s Perez, then went on to defeat Portugal’s Pedro Povoa in the repechage round. (Pedro Povoa was defeated in the preliminary match by Perez.) In the bronze medal match, Chu defeated Thailand’s Chutchawal Khawlaor, who lost the semifinals to Mexico’s Perez. Chu won the bronze by a score of 4-2.

Summary of medalists:

Women’s 49 kg:
Gold – China – Wu Jingyu
Silver – Thailand – Buttree Puedpong
Bronze – Venezuela – Dalia Contreras Rivero
Bronze – Cuba – Daynellis Montejo

Men’s 58 kg:
Gold – Mexico – Guillermo Perez
Silver – Dominican Republic – Yulis Gabriel Mercedes
Bronze – Afghanistan – Rohullah Nikpai
Bronze – Chinese Taipei – Chu Mu-Yen

Links:
Contest results for all matches today
Results for women’s 49 kg
Results for men’s 58 kg

Check with www.cbc.ca/olympics/ Thursday night to see Canada’s next two matches in taekwondo, Karine Sergerie in the women’s 67 kg and Sebastien Michaud in the men’s 80 kg.

~~~C

After Gonda lost her preliminary taekwondo match, Canada launched a protest claiming the judging was unfair. There were many kicks that could/should have scored in the match, but no points were awarded to Gonda in the match. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought she should have had more points. (See the CBC article and scroll down to the comments.) The quarterfinals for the women’s 49k start at 3:00 a.m. EST. So far rumour has it that the appeal has been dismissed. As of writing, the final results still lists Sweden’s Zajc as advancing to the quarterfinals and not Canada’s Gonda.

The Olympics are supposed to be using the competition rules as set by the WTF. According to these Rules of Competition, three or more judges must agree to score a point. More specifically (Article 13: Scoring and Publication),

3.
In the use of electronic trunk protectors
A. Valid points scored on the mid-section of the trunk shall be recorded automatically by the transmitter in the electronic trunk protector.
B. Valid points scored to the face shall be marked by each judge by using the electronic scoring instrument or judge’s scoring sheet.
4.
In the case of scoring with an electronic scoring instrument or on a judge’s scoring sheet, valid points shall be those recognized by at least three or more judges.

I’m not sure if electronic trunk protectors were used, but it looked as if the judges were using the hand-held scoring devices. The other issue with scoring points is that the judges may not see the kicks if you aren’t positioned in a clear field of view. I noticed in this match, the Swedish competitor was blocking the view of one of the judges – whether or not this was intentional is unclear.

This is not the first protest against unfair judging. Earlier, a Swedish wrestler who won the bronze match gave up his medal and walked away from the podium and medal ceremony. He lost the match that would have advanced him to the gold medal match. (His opponent went on to win the gold.) The Swedish wrestler was angry after the match due to unfair judging and only went on with the bronze medal match after discussing it with friends and family.

~~~C