Saturday, 14 July 2012

Taekwondo - A hard hitting and kicking sport

The sport of Taekwondo is a martial arts sport that originated in Korea and is still the national sport of South Korea. The name Taekwondo can be loosly translated to "the way of the hand and foot" which roughly sums up the sport where competitors score points with kicks and punches. The sport is extremely popular around the world with Olympic medallist from every continent which is suprising seeing as the sport was first introduced to the Olympics during the 2000 Sydney games.

The Olympic format there are eight gold medals up for grabs in four weight classes for both the Men's and the Women's competition. In each weight class the competition is done as a single elimination tournament. All competitors that loose to one of the two finalist at any stage enters what's called the repechage. The winners of the two repechage pools go up against the two semi-final loosers to compete for two bronze medals, yes in Taekwondo there are two bronze medals instead of the usual one. I love the repechage because it ensures that the best athletes ends up with the medals and that one doesn't win a medal because of bad luck in the match up.


There are many favourites from many nations in the upcoming games, but the South Koreans are big favourites. the only problem is that South Korea can only bring four athletes to the games and because they have favourites in every weight class it will be hard to try and figure out who will be chosen. At the 2008 Beijing games the four athletes that went to the games came home with gold meaning that whoever goes from South Korea will have major pressure to win their weight class. If you look aside from the South Koreans there are plenty of other athletes that you might want to have your eyes on in the games. Rohullah Nikpai (AFG) for example became a national hero at the last Olympics after winning Afghanistans first ever Olympic medal taking bronze in the Men's Flyweight class, will he take the countries first ever gold? Another athlete looking for gold is Chika Chukwumerije (NIG) who also took a bronze medal in the last Olympics. Home favourite Jade Jones (GBR) is the currently best ranked female british athlete and is hoping that homecourt advantage will lead to an Olympic medal.

My prediction is that South Korea will win the four weight classes they enter competitors, but for any of the other weight classes the field is wide open and predicting any one to win is hard. I'm hoping for Nikpai (AFG) winning his first gold medal. Either way there will be plenty of excitement in this Olympic tournament.

Who do you think is going to win? Leave a comment below     

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