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No looking back South Korean, Cuban take gold medalsLatest: Sunday October 08, 2000 05:16 PM
SYDNEY (CNNSI.com) -- Sun-hee Lee of South Korea beat Trude Gundersen of Norway 6-3 to win the gold medal in the under 67 kg category of the women's taekwondo competition Friday night. Lee, took an early lead against Gundersen, then cruised to the win. She celebrated the victory by carrying the Korean flag high above her head on a lap of honor. Angel Valodia Matos Fuentes, or Volodia as he prefers to be known, became Cuba's first Olympic taekwondo gold medallist. Volodia beat Faissal Ebnoutalib in the men's under 80kgs final, 3-1 onnts to leave the German with yet another minor placing medal. Ebnoutalib already has silver and bronze medals from the World Cup and World Championship. Volodia dedicated his medal to his mother who died ten days ago. "This means a lot to me and other people around me," he said. "My mother would have been very proud." It was the third different combat sport, after judo and wrestling, in which Cuba have won gold so far in the Games and they will also be expecting a few more in boxing. "Fighting comes in our blood," said Volodia. "But we also train very hard." The men's bronze medal fight was a contest between the two most unpopular fighters in the competition. Roman Livaja of Sweden had just eliminated the Australian, Warren Hansen, while Victor Manuel Estrada Garibay of Mexico had beaten the crowd's favourite, N'Guessan Sebastien Konan of Ivory Coast. Konan lacked technique against Estrada Garibay, but he had captured the hearts of the crowd and no-one received warmer applause when he left the mat. All was forgiven, though, by the time the two bronze medal fighters took to the mat and Estrada Gabiray was a popular winner despite being roundly booed after his previous fight. The women's bronze medal bout was an interesting affair, pitting the experienced Japanese fighter, Yoriko Okamoto against 17-year-old prodigy, Sarah Stevenson of Britain. The young Briton seemed a little overawed at first and was trailing 3-0 on points before she began working her way into the fight. She staged a barnstorming recovery, but Okamoto held out to win 6-5. Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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