Korea won three gold medals, Iran took two and Cote d’Ivoire, Turkey and Uzbekistan went home with one each at the 2015 World Taekwondo Grand Prix Series 1 in Moscow as the sport’s top athletes started their Olympic journeys in earnest.
The competition, which ran from Aug. 14-16 at the Dinamo Krylatskoye Stadium in the Russian capital, opened the 2015 Grand Prix series, welcoming some 245 athletes from 52 countries, all seeking to add valuable ranking points for Rio 2016.
With their organizational nous, the Russians set the bar high for future hosts, drawing smiles with a robot that delivered medals to the winners at the podium, selecting a “Ms Grand Prix” and even offering a million rubles to anyone who successfully guessed the winners of all four female and four male Olympic weight categories being contested.
The competition opened on a somber note with the gathered athletes, officials and spectators observing a minute’s silence in remembrance of Chong-woo Lee, who passed away in Seoul, aged 86, on August 8. The late grandmaster had been a key pioneer of sportive taekwondo.
Then battle commenced.
The final of the female -67kg class saw Korea’s Hye-ri Oh facing off against Canada’s Melissa Pagnotta. The match was a close one, with both girls scoring tit-for-tat with body and head kicks. At the end of the third, Oh was ahead but Pagnotta staved off defeat and evened the score to 7-7 in the dying seconds of the match, taking the contest to golden point. Both athletes, superbly conditioned, came out attacking furiously, but it was Oh who scored for Korea with a sickle-sharp turning kick to the body for the gold.

Azerbaijan’s Farida Azizova and Egypt’s Seham Elsawalhy took bronzes.
The women’s +67kg final, between Turkey’s Nafia Kus (ranked 18th in the world) and China’s Donghua Li (ranked 12th) was a surprise: Most pundits had expected a final showdown between the two eventual bronze medalists, world-ranked number two Gwladys Epangue of France, and current world champion Bianca Walkden of Great Britain. But Li was not in the slightest bit overawed and dispatched Epangue with a comfortable point difference, while Kus took out Walkden via golden point.
In the final, Kus drew first blood with a front-leg turning kick to the body; Li returned fire with an arcing ax kick. Then Li went down in a flurry, with what looked like a twisted ankle. As fighting recommenced, Kus looked to take swift advantage. Both fighters showed a high work rate as they fought for the center of the ring. By the final round there was just a one-point difference, but Kus extended her lead as Li started to lose her distancing. The match ended with a convincing 12-5 victory for Kus, but Lee had shown impressive courage in coming back from a bad fall.
Walkden and Epangue took bronzes.

The men’s +80kg final was a bruising affair with the tank-like Uzbek Dmitriy Shokin, the world-ranked number five, taking on Russia’s taller and whippier Vladislav Larin. Shokin opening the scoring with a punch but the home-town favorite was unintimidated. Returning fire with a snappy front leg kick, he scored. The match settled down to both men sparring off their front legs, with Shokin varying his attacks with punches and spin kicks and Larin countering with turning kicks off both legs. Shokin settled down and started showing off a bit of showmanship, as the “thwack” of his kicks impacting Larin’s body protector echoed around the stadium. The final result was in little doubt; the match ended with a definitive 9-4 victory to Shokin, who dedicated his victory to Uzbekistan’s upcoming independence day. Larin was more down-to-earth; being kicked by Shokin, he said, was “not particularly pleasant.”

 

 

Chol-ho Cho of Korea and Mahama Cho of Great Britain won bronzes.
In the female -49kg final, Korea’s So-hui Kim took on China’s Zhaoyi Li. The fight was a tactical one, with both girls seemingly unable to find the distance, but in the end, it was Kim’s superior kick placement that gave her a 3-2 victory despite a late challenge from the Chinese. Turkey’s Rukiye Yildirim and Serbia’s Tijana Bogdanovic shared bronze medals.
In the men’s -58kg division, Iran’s Farzan “The Tsunami” Ashourzadeh Fallah, took on Mexico’s Carlos Navarro. The match was almost point for point, until the Iranian pulled ahead in the final round, leading the Mexican to uncork a down-to-the-wire series of spinning kicks from the very edge of the mat. But it was “The Tsunami” for the victory, taking the final 8-5 for the gold medal after an action-packed and highly entertaining fight.

Bronzes went to Germany’s Levent Tuncat and Korea’s Tae-hun Kim.
In the men’s -80kg category, Cote d’Ivoire’s Cheick Sallah Cisse fought for the gold with Moldova’s Aaron Cook. Cisse had advanced to the final after his semifinal opponent, the United States’ Steven Lopez, had withdrawn due to injury. As the match got underway, Cisse drew ahead, fighting strongly. Cook – who had KOed Mali’s Ismael Coulibaly in the semifinal with a spectacular head kick that won him the applause of the stadium – looked exhausted.
Even so, Cook, with vocal encouragement from the crowd, let fly with a series of the spinning kicks that are his trademark. However, they failed to connect, giving Cisse the match – and the gold medal – 11-4.

Coulibaly and Lopez took the bronzes.
In the female -57kg final, Iran’s Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin, ranked 40th in the world, was behind in the entire match, seemingly unable to penetrate the cagey defense of Great Britain’s Jade Jones, the world-ranked number two, and was behind 3:0. But in the last seconds of the third round, the Iranian connected with a head kick for three points that took the match to golden point. In the sudden-death round, Alizadeh Zenoorin kept her cool and scored to take the match and the gold medal. Jones appeared devastated at losing a match she had controlled for so long.

 

 

Egypt’s Hedaya Malak and Croatia’s Martina Zubcic shared bronze medals.
The final of the men’s -68kg division was a Korean-Korean affair, with Hun Kim taking on compatriot and team mate Dae-hoon Lee. Although both fighters know each other inside out, they delivered a fine display of technical taekwondo. Kim, ranked 16th in the world, was ahead in the first round 7-1, but Lee, ranked third, reduced the deficit to 8-7 in the second round. At the end of the third, the two were tied at 12-12. In the golden point round, both athletes were landing round kicks to the body that drew gasps from the audience, but it was Kim who registered on the PSS taking a deserved victory: He had been ahead for most of the game.

Bronzes went to Russia’s Maksim Khramtcov and Iran’s Abolfazl Yaghoubijouybari.
In a special addition to the Grand Prix, Egypt’s Hedaya Malak, bronze medalist at -57kg, was named “Ms Grand Prix” and presented with a bouquet. Alas, the “million rubles” prize – announced during a press conference at Itar-Tass by Russian Taekwondo Union President Anatoly Terekhov – went unclaimed. Nobody correctly guessed all eight gold medalists, so a consolation prize of 100,000 rubles was offered to whoever guessed the highest number of winners. That was won by one of the sport’s top pundits - WTF TV Commentator Mike McKenzie of GB’s Quest Taekwondo.

The Grand Prix ended in festive style as the Russian Taekwondo Union hosted all athletes and officals to a party in Bunker-42, a remarkable night club set deep under Moscow streets in Stalin’s former nuclear shelter!