Canada's Sergerie Karine and Turkey's Sari Ali clinched one gold medal each in Beijing on Thursday when they were crowned at the women's -67kg and men's -80kg division at the "2008 Good Luck Beijing" International Taekwondo Invitational Tournament.
As a reigning world champion, Karine showed her clear head in the first set when she scored a crucial point after fending off attacks from the young rival.
The 18-year-old Si, who had no international experience before, tried to reply later but failed to score in front of the Canadian's solid defence and clever moves till the final whistle. However, the young twekwondist still showed her promising strength against the world champion.
"The patience is the key to my victory today as the young opponent was very aggressive and I had to defend until the opportunity came. Luckily, I grabbed the crucial one point in the opening set," said the winner after the championship bout.
In the third-place playoffs earlier, China's Liu Jing and Guo Yunfei overcame their opponents to share the bronze medal.
On the men's side, 22-year-old Sari, the bronze medalist at 2007 Universiad Championship, hit Osama's chest to score first in the opening set and then turned to solid defence and counterattack strategy.
Osama, who had no major international achievements before, felt a little impatient and tried to score imminently regardless of his sloppy defence, which gave the his opponent many chances in the following sets.
Sari spotted the flaws in time and make two efficient kicks to seal the victory 3-1 despite one point scored by his opponent in the third set. Turkey then reaped its second gold of the tournament after Tazegul Servet was crowned at men's 68kg class on Wednesday.
"It was a tough match today as my opponent is very strong and skillful. I contribute the victory to years of hard training which might be the key to my gold today. Thanks a lot for the well-organized tournament to give me this chance," said Sari after the championship bout.
In the third-place playoffs earlier, Zhu Guo of China and Canada's Michaud Sebastien downed their opponents to wrap up the bronze medal.
The four-day Olympic test event, which has drawn 128 athletes from 27 countries and regions, the same number of athletes for the Olympics, will conclude on Friday night at the Gymnasium of the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), the venue for the Olympic judo and taekwondo competition in August.
(Xinhua News Agency February 29, 2008)