Abughaush said he was very happy to be able to win Jordan’s first Olympic medal.
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A taekwondo fighter reportedly born in Israel brought Olympic glory to Jordan late Thursday, winning gold and the kingdom’s first-ever Olympic medal. “I knew I wanted to be a legend after London”.
En route to the final, the 10th-ranked outsider knocked out second-seed Dae-Hoon Lee of South Korea before beating Olympic champion Joel Bonilla Gonzalez of Spain, who won the 58-kilogram division at the London Games.
She had won her bronze medal match via a golden point over Belgium’s Roheleh Asemani, the ex-member of the Refugees Olympic Team who secured Belgian nationality after qualifying for these Games. He topped No. 7 seed Ghofran Zaki of Egypt in the preliminaries, eventual bronze medalist in South Korea’s No. 2 seed Lee Daehoon in the quarterfinals, another bronze medalist in Spain’s No. 6 seed Joel Gonzalez Bonilla in the semifinals, and No. 4 seed Alexey Denisenko of Russian Federation in the finals.
There was no immediate reaction from Queen Elizabeth after Jade Jones’ success, but she was hailed as the queen of Wales afterwards. The pair traded cut kicks at the start of the final round before Jones landed two head kicks and a body kick to take a 15-7 lead to defend her Olympic title.
It’s fun and celebration everywhere in Jordan! While Jones and Calvo Gomez did what was essentially expected on them in the women’s division by finishing first and second respectively, the top two seeds in the men’s side failed to even medal.
Meanwhile, Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin kicked and punched down opponents and barriers as she became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal by taking taekwondo bronze in the 57kg category.
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The men’s bronze medals were won by Spain’s Joel Bonilla Gonzalez and South Korea’s Dae-Hoon Lee.
