June 01, 2023 08:19
Bae Jun-seo clinched Korea's first gold medal at this year's World Taekwondo Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
The biennial event started on Monday and ends on Sunday.
Bae defeated Russia's Georgii Gurtsiev 2-0. Gurtsiev is competing as a neutral athlete in the men's under 58-kg final.
Last month, the World Taekwondo Council allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the event under a neutral flag without an anthem or emblem after banning them from competing last year due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This is Bae's second world championship title after his previous win in the men's under 54-kg event in Manchester, U.K. in 2019.
Bae said he would work harder to earn a ticket to the Summer Olympics in Paris next year.
Kang Sang-hyun won Korea's second gold in the men's under 87-kg on Wednesday, beating Ivan Sapina of Croatia 2-0, and Jin Ho-jun won a silver in the men's under 68-kg on Tuesday, defeated 2-0 by Bradly Sinden of the U.K.
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