Taiwan’s Chen Po-yen (陳柏諺) won a bronze medal in the men’s under-54 kilogram division at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday, toppling quality opponents before falling to the world No. 3.
Unlike in past competitions when the total score over three two-minute rounds was added up to determine the victor, this year’s world championships adopted a new best-of-three scoring system in which the first to win two rounds was declared the winner.
Chen seemed to thrive in the new system.
Making his world championships debut in the lightest weight category for men, Chen opened with a 2-0 (13-0, 12-2) win over Thomas Mansell of Nicaragua in the round of 64, and then upset world No. 8 Tom Pashcovsky of Israel 2-1 (3-2, 5-10, 12-1) a round later.
His round of 16 bout, a 2-1 (5-3, 0-5, 14-7) win over world No. 42 Loay Ihmedan of Jordan, also went the distance, but in the quarterfinals he dispatched world No. 2 Josip Teskera in two rounds (6-2, 13-8).
Chen’s run came to an end in the semifinals when world No. 3 Omar Salim of Hungary beat him 2-1 (10-2, 6-7, 3-1), giving Chen a bronze medal in the weight class.
The round Chen won against Salim was only one of two the Hungarian would lose in five bouts on his way to the under-54 kg gold medal.
Chen’s bronze was the second medal won by Taiwan at the Mexico event. Olympic medalist Lo Chia-ling (羅嘉翎) grabbed silver in the women’s under-57 kg division after losing an extremely tight final to Luo Zongshi (羅宗世) of China.
Taiwan has entered a competitor in all 16 weight classes (eight men and eight women) at this year’s championships, which conclude Sunday.
The Taiwan team has already surpassed its performances at the last two World Championships, when it won a silver medal in 2017 and was shut out from the medal table in 2019.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel