Olympic taekwondo results August 19: Oh, Cisse win gold in welterweight
By John Buhler
Oh Hye-Ri of South Korea and Cheick Sallah Cisse, Jr. of Ivory Coast win gold in Olympic Taekwondo’s welterweight divisions in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
Day 3 of Olympic taekwondo at Carioca Arena 3 saw eight olympians take home medals in the welterweight divisions. Winning gold in the Women’s 67 Kilogram class was South Korea’s Oh Hye-Ri and in the Men’s 80 Kilogram class was Ivory Coast’s Cheick Sallah Cisse, Jr.
Oh was the No. 6 seed in the tournament, upsetting No. 3 seed from Chinese Taipei in Chuang Chia-China in the quarterfinals and top seed Haby Niare in the finals. Niare’s only defeat was in the finals to Oh.
Earning the two bronze medals via repêchage were Ivory Coast’s Ruth Gbagbi and Turkey’s Nur Tatar. Gbagbi was the tournament’s No. 9 seed, falling to only Niare in the quarterfinals. Tatar was the tournament’s No. 4 seeding, falling to only Niare in the semifinals.
American Paige McPherson lost her only fight of the day as the No. 7 seed to No. 10 seed from Azerbaijan in Farida Azizova, 6-5. Azizova would lose to a No. 15 seed in Uzbekistan’s Nigora Tursunkulova in the quarterfinals and Gbagbi in repêchage.
MEDAL RESULT | Women's 67 kg
Cisse was the Men’s 80 kilogram weight class’ No. 3 seed. He was the highest seed in every match he participated in, knocking off Great Britain’s Lutalo Muhammad in the finals to win Olympic gold. Muhammad was the tournament’s No. 5 seed and won every match that he was the higher seed before falling to No. 3 seed Cisse in the finals.
Earning the two bronze medals in repêchage were Milad Beigi of Azerbaijan and Oussama Oueslati of Tunisia. No. 9 seed Beigi upset No. 8 seed in Mali’s Ismael Coulibaly in the preliminary round and No. 1 seed in Iran’s Mehdi Khodabakhshi in the quarterfinals before falling to Muhammad in the semifinals. He would clobber Poland’s Piotr Pazinski in repêchage to win the bronze.
Ouselati was the tournament’s No. 10 seed. He upset No. 7 seed from Uzbekistan in Nikita Rafalovich in the preliminary round, knocked off No. 15 seed Liu Wei-Ting of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals before falling to Cisse in the semifinals. Ouselati would defeat American Steven Lopez in repêchage to earn his bronze medal.
Next: 50 greatest Summer Olympians in history.
Lopez can up so close to winning another medal in Olympic taekwondo at the age of 37. As the tournament’s No. 13 seed, Lopez upset No. 4 seed from Russia in Albert Gaun in the preliminary round before falling to Muhammad in the quarterfinals. He would then defeat No. 12 seed Hayder Shkara of Australia in his first match of repêchage, but would miss out on a bronze by losing to Ouselati in his second match of repêchage.