Taiwanese Olympic medalist Lo Chia-ling (???) bagged a gold medal in the taekwondo women’s under-57-kilogram division at the Tallinn Open G2 in Estonia, which concluded Sunday.
Lo beat South Korean Kim Yu-Jin 2-0 in a best of three-round match held under a new sparring rule introduced by World Taekwondo (WT) in June to replace the previous total points system.
Prior to Lo’s gold on Sunday, her last medal was won in May, when she took the bronze in the women’s under-62 kg at the Taekwondo Austrian Open. Last year, she brought home a bronze medal from the Tokyo Summer Olympics for her performance in the women’s under-57 kg event.
Liu Tsung-ta (???), coach of the Taiwan team at the Tallinn Open, said that while Lo lost her first two matches in women’s under-57-kilogram category, she regained her rhythm as the competition progressed and was able to beat Kim on Sunday.
Lo’s early losses in the preliminaries motivated her to adapt and improvise, and she trained harder ahead of every game, the coach said.
Commenting on the WT’s new competition rules, Liu said Lo had adjusted in Tallinn by “being a bit more offensive, rather than counterattacking all the time.”
The Taiwan team at the Tallinn Open, which included Chuang Hsin-hsuan (???) and Chen Po-yen (???), bagged one other medal, when the latter won a silver medal in the men’s under-58 kg division.
The Tallinn Open G2 tournament was held Aug. 22-28 in Estonia.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel