2016 Olympic taekwondo results: Jade Jones, Ahmad Abughaush win gold

Taekwondo medal matches continued Thursday evening, with bronze and gold medal matches in the women’s 57 kg weight class and the men’s 68 kg weight class.

The action kicked off with the women, featuring Hedaya Wahba of Egypt facing off against Rahelah Asemani of Belgium in the bronze medal match. Wahba and Asemani were evenly matched and remained scoreless through all three rounds, which sent the match into sudden death. Wahba landed a blow in sudden death to secure the bronze for Egypt.

Next up was the men’s 68 kg bronze medal match, with Joel Gonzalez of Spain matched up with Edgar Contreras from Venezuela. The opponents remained scoreless through one round, then Gonzalez took a lead late in the second round, and Contreras tied it up as time expired in the second round. Gonzalez took a lead early in the third, going up 4-1. Contreras narrowed the lead to 4-2, then 4-3, but Gonzalez held on to win with 4-3 as the final score.

In the other women’s 57 kg bronze medal match, Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin of Iran went up against Nikita Glasnovic of Sweden. The match was scoreless through one round, and Zenoorin finally scored early in the second, establishing a 1-0 lead. Zenoorin then extended the lead to 5-0 early in the third, and she held onto her lead, winning bronze with a final score of 5-1.

In the other men’s 68 kg bronze medal match, Lee Daehoon of South Korea took on Jaouad Achab from Belgium. With seconds remaining in the first round, Achab landed a kick to the head, establishing a 3-0 lead over Daehoon. Daehoon established a 5-4 lead early in the third, and then he extended his lead to 7-5 with a kick to Achab’s head with 22 seconds remaining in the third and final round. Another kick to Achab’s head extended Daehoon’s lead to 10-6. With four seconds left, Daehoon landed a kick to Achab’s torso, making the score 11-7, though Daehoon’s knee was buckling under him. Daehoon held on to win the bronze.

In the gold medal match for the women’s 57 kg weight class, Jade Jones of Great Britain met Eva Calvo Gómez of Spain on the mat. Jones went up quickly 6-0 with two kicks to the head in rapid succession, but Gómez’s coach protested, asking for one of the kicks to be invalidated. The score was upheld. Gomez added two points early in second round but looked outmatched throughout. Jones ended up winning the gold with a final score of 16-7.

In the men’s 68 kg gold medal match, Alexey Denisenko of Russia took on Ahmad Abughaush of Jordan, and these two competitors were evenly matched. Abughaush finally started to pull away in the third round and held on to win gold with a final score of 10-6.