The challenge, however, was rejected, giving Kim and Korea a much anticipated gold medal and helping the nation live up to its reputation as the birthplace of taekwondo.
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Elsewhere on Thursday, the women’s doubles team of Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan will try to win South Korea’s first badminton medal in Rio.
Sohui Kim, ranks 7th, defeated Tijana Bogdanovic from Serbia in the tough final match where in the two fighters exerted their whole strength to beat each other.
In the second set, Kim added three points with an offensive kick to Bogdanovic’s head, but she later had to yield a penalty point. “I really did my best, and I totally feel on cloud nine”, Kim reacted.
Kim scored first against Bogdanovic in the 49-kilogram division finals. She was penalized for avoiding the fight in the last seconds of the match, and a video replay contesting whether she had scored another head kick – that was ultimately unsuccessful – delayed her celebrations.
Kim said that because taekwondo is a Korean sport, there is additional pressure to deliver. The Serb said she was disappointed not to win the gold and disputed whether the scoring was accurate.
In the opening day of the taekwondo competition, Kim worked toward the gold medal match by taking down Julissa Diez Canseco Verde of Peru, Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand and Yasmina Aziez of France along the way.
The early Wednesday fights included an upset by 26-year-old Moroccan fighter Omar Hajjami over Iran’s Farzan Ashourzadeh Falleh, a 19-year-old world champion who had been considered a gold-medal contender.
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Korea, normally the dominant force in taekwondo, also ended the day with two medals after two-time world champion Kim Tae-hun denied Mexico a bronze, beating Carlos Navarro 7-5 in the men’s under-58kg division.
