Kim Yu-jin takes comfortable gold in women's -57-kilogram taekwondo

Kim Yu-jin secured Korea’s second taekwondo gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday, beating Nahid Kiyanichandeh of Iran in two rounds in the women’s -57 kilograms.

Korea's Kim Yu-jin, right, competes with Iran's Nahid Kiyanichandeh in the women's 57-kilogram taekwondo final at the Grand Palais in Paris on Thursday. [AP/YONHAP]

Kim Yu-jin secured Korea’s second taekwondo gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday, beating Nahid Kiyanichandeh of Iran in two rounds in the women’s -57 kilograms.

Kim made short work of some of the biggest taekwondo practitioners in the world en route to the final at the Grand Palais in Paris, fighting her way past the fifth, fourth, first and second seeds in the weight class despite having been entered at No. 12 in the category.

Only one of those matches went to three rounds — against world No. 1 Luo Zongshi of China in the semifinal — with Kim taking the other three in two straight rounds. The gold medal contest was especially one-sided, with Kim winning the first round 5-1 and then sweeping through the second 9-0.

Kim is the second Korean to take a gold medal in taekwondo in Paris, a huge improvement on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where Korea failed to claim a single gold in the sport it created.

Park Tae-joon won Korea’s first gold of the Games on Wednesday when he beat Gashim Magomedov of Azerbaijan in an emotional final marred by an injury sustained by the Azerbaijani practitioner early in the boat.

Park’s gold was Korea’s first since Rio and Kim’s was the second. Korea still have two more shots at a taekwondo medal in Paris: Seo Geon-woo will compete in the men’s -80 kilograms on Friday and Lee Da-bin in the women’s +60 kilograms on Saturday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]