Double world champion Joel Gonzalez of Spain added Olympic gold to his collection as he beat South Korea’s Lee Dae-Hoon in the men’s under-58kg taekwondo final on Wednesday.

World champion Lee had come down from the non-Olympic under-63kg category to compete in London but went down 17-8.

In a low-scoring bronze medal contest Russia’s Alexey Denisenko beat Safwan Khalil of Australia 3-1.

The second bronze medal went to Oscar Munoz of Colombia who successfully challenged a last second three-point kick to beat Thailand’s Pen-Ek Karaket 6-4.

Gonzalez struck first in the opening round of the final, connecting with a three-point head kick to open up a 5-2 lead.

That was thanks to his coach’s quick thinking as the score had not originally been given but was challenged by the Spanish camp and awarded after a video review.

Lee had closed the gap with two unanswered points until a flurry of late kicks in the second round saw Gonzalez extend his lead to 8-4.

In the final round a brutal axe-kick that connected with Lee’s mouth, sending him crashing to the canvas and drawing blood, provided the final nail in the Korean’s coffin.

His camp made a hopeful challenge, claiming a three-point head kick for him, but that was rejected and his lingering hopes of victory died.

It was a great evening for Spain as Brigitte Yague also took silver in the women’s under-49kg category.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.