Traditional taekwondo powerhouse Korea collected three gold medals at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games while China grabbed gold in the men's and women's heavyweight divisions.
Traditional taekwondo powerhouse Korea collected three gold medals at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games while China grabbed gold in the men's and women's heavyweight divisions.
In the men's events Korea's Seo Byeong Deok and Kim Jin Hak took golds in the -63kg and -73kg categories while Iran's Kaveh Rezaei took the -55kg gold.
Liu Chang won gold for China in the +73kg and Israel's Gili Haimovitz was the winner of the -48kg after Iranian Mohammad Soleimani withdrew from the final after aggravating a previous injury.
Some of the top performers from the Youth Olympic Games qualifiers, including Jordan's Yazan Alsadeq in the +73kg category and Konstanin Minin in the -63kg, failed to hit the heights they were expected to.
Russia, Thailand, Great Britain, Korea and China all collected one gold medal in the women's events.
Pre-Games favourite Anastasia Valueva from Russia, who won the Youth Games qualifier, took the -44kg gold and Worawong Pongpanit (THA) won the -49kg category.
Great Britain's Jade Jones won -55kg gold while Jeon Soo Yeon (KOR) and Zheng Shuyin (CHN) came out on top in the -63kg and +63kg categories.
The women's events also had their share of disappointments for some of the pre-Games favourites. Impressive showings in the Youth Olympic Games qualifiers were not repeated by Iran's Maryam Shir Jahani in the -44kg and Korea's Kim So Hui in the -49kg, who both went home empty handed.
Monica Chavez (MEX) won the Youth Games -55kg qualifier but did not get beyond the quarterfinals in Singapore and France's Faiza Taoussara claimed +63kg bronze, when many expected her to take the gold.
YONS
