Taekwondo Park Tae-jun participates in the Paris Olympics

‘He lost all 6 games’, overcoming inferiority and defeating Jang Jun

Taejun Park (right) and Jun Jang competed in the men's taekwondo 58kg class selection competition for the 2024 Paris Olympics held at Jeju Halla Gymnasium on the 1st.

Taejun Park (Kyung Hee University) won a ticket to Paris by defeating Hangzhou Asian Games gold medalist Jang Jun (Korea Gas Corporation) in the selection match for the men's taekwondo 58kg class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It is a valuable victory achieved after overcoming the disadvantage of losing all 6 matches against the opponent.

Park Tae-jun defeated Jang Jun in the Paris Olympics men's taekwondo 58kg class selection match (best of 3 out of 2) held at Halla Gymnasium in Jeju on the 1st and won the right to participate in the Olympics for the first time in his life.

In this selection competition, a total of three matches will be held at two-hour intervals starting at 10 a.m., and the player who wins two first will advance to the Olympics.

Park Tae-jun, who came from behind to win the first game 2-1 (4-6 12-5 11-8), won the second game against Jang Jun 2-1 (3-7 4-2 9-7) and qualified for the Paris Olympics.

Taejun Park lost the first round to Jang Jun in the second game. Taejun Park, who won 2 points with a body kick 10 seconds after the start of the first round, allowed Jangjun to kick the match in succession and was defeated 2-4. Afterwards, they had difficulty scoring additional points, and ended up losing 3-7.

However, just like in the first game, Park Tae-jun showed his potential again from the second round. The two fighters exchanged body kicks once 20 seconds into the second round. With the tight balance continuing, Taejun Park scored 2 points with a right-footed side kick 10 seconds before the end and brought the 2nd round.

Taejun Park gained momentum by taking 4 points first in the 3rd round. He was leading 7-5, but 6 seconds before the end, he blocked Jang Jun's head attack and widened the lead to 9-5. Although they received guidance twice in the end, they did not allow any offense and won 9-7.

Park Tae-jun is happy after winning the men's taekwondo 58kg national team selection match at the Paris Olympics held at Jeju Halla Gymnasium on the 1st.

Jang Jun and Park Tae-jun are both considered candidates for Olympic gold medals. Jang Jun participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won a bronze medal. He is also a strong player who reached the finals of both the 2019 Manchester (gold medal) and 2020 Guadalajara (silver medal) World Championships, and also won the gold medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games in September last year.

Taejun Park also won the men's 58kg class at the Manchester World Grand Prix in October 2022 and the men's 54kg class at the Baku World Championships in May last year. In October last year, he won a bronze medal at the Taoyuan World Grand Prix in the men's 58kg class, following Zhang Jun (silver medal).

Before this selection match began, it was expected that Jang Jun would have the upper hand. Jang Jun defeated Park Tae-jun in all six domestic competitions he faced to qualify for the Hangzhou Asian Games.

However, Taejun Park overcame his relative inferiority and won a valuable victory that day, achieving the feat of advancing to his first Olympics. 19가이드03