Hwang seeks redemption for loss at 2011 Championships

The following is the fifth of a series of articles on rival athletes in South Korea’s favorite events at the London 2012 Olympic Games. -Ed.


Korea’s ace taekwondo fighter Hwang Kyung-seon has an opponent she wants to defeat by all means, not to mention a gold medal to win, in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“I want to defeat Sarah Stevenson of Britain and capture the gold,” she told reporters at a media day event July 10.

The 26-year-old revealed the name of the British fighter because she wants redemption for her loss to Stevenson in the 2011 World Championships in Gyeongju, Korea.

Hwang sports a career of firsts and golden achievements as a national athlete in the sport.

She is the only Korean taekwondo fighter to make a third straight Olympic appearance in London after the traditional Korean martial art was put on the official Olympic program in Sydney in 2000.

Her Olympic debut was in 2004. The then-third-year high school student upset two-time world champ Kim Yeon-ji in the trials for the Athens 2004 Olympics.

Hwang also was the first in Korean taekwondo history to enter the Olympic Games as a high school student.

In her first Olympic appearance in Athens, however, Hwang was eliminated 8-10 by Luo Wei of China in the 67 kg class 16-player round, but clinched the bronze through a repechage. Luo Wei went on to win the gold.

Four years later in Beijing, she stepped on an Olympic mat for the second consecutive time, the first for a Korean taekwondo fighter at that time, and did what she failed to do in Athens.

Despite pain from a left knee injury sustained in the quarterfinals, she outlasted Karine Sergerie of Canada 2-1 in the final to grab the gold.

Her other achievements include 2005 and 2007 world champ titles and a 2006 Asian Games gold medal.

Her toughest rival in London, Sarah Diana Stevenson, has been favorite to win a gold in London since she became world champion last year.

The fighter suffered from cruciate ligament damage and went under the knife in February. The injury threatened to keep her out of the Olympic Games, but she made the national team.

Though she had a long hiatus from practice due to the surgery, Britain gave her an Olympic berth, considering her high chance of winning a gold medal.

Stevenson makes her fourth straight Olympic appearance, in her home country, since the Sydney 2000 Games. The 29-year-old reached the semifinals in 2000, and lost the first round in 2004. Then came Beijing, where Stevenson left with a bronze medal, Britain’s first in the sport. Yet it was not a moment she cherishes. In the quarterfinal a judging error led to her to be beaten by China’s Chen Zhong. Britain appealed and Stevenson was reinstated but had only minutes to prepare for her semifinal.

She was not matched with Hwang in both Athens and Beijing because Stevenson was in the 67 kg-plus class while Hwang was in 67 kg. They have clashed only once so far ― in the semifinal of the World Championships in May last year. Hwang kneeled to Stevenson 5-8, dashing her dream of a third world title after 2005 and 2007. She now seeks redemption in London.

According to British news media, Stevenson seeks to honor the memory of her parents. Last July her father, Ray, died of a brain tumor. In November, her mother, Diana, died of cancer.

Stevenson says her knee is holding up well. Any Olympic opponent looking to target her damaged knee will be playing straight into her hands.

The gold medal match of women’s 65 kg class taekwondo will take place at 6:15 a.m. Korean time Aug. 11.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)