Taiwanese female taekwondo athletes Tseng Pei-hua and Yang Shu-chun kicked and punched their way to 2012 London Olympics’ berths at the world qualifiers in Baku, Azerbaijan.
World No.2 Tseng defeated top-seeded Hou Yuzhuo from mainland China 3-0 to clinch gold July 3 in the women’s under-57 kilogram category.
Tseng, a three-time Asian Championship winner and two-time World Champion bronze medalist, clearly had the measure of 2009 and 2011 World Champion Hou in their fiercely contested bout.
“I have defeated her before and was feeling quite at ease; I knew I could do it again,” Tseng said after the win.
“Tseng outperformed Hou in every aspect, including her physical condition, movements and tactics. Her rhythm during the competition was perfect,” said Lien Wen-sheng, head coach of the Chinese Taipei team.
The cross-strait rivals have met twice before in recent years, with Tseng losing to Hou in the semifinals of the 2009 World Cup Team Championship but scoring an upset victory in last year’s Asian Championship.
A day earlier, Yang Shu-chun secured her ticket to London by defeating the Dominican Republic’s Yajaira Peguero 8-0 to finish with bronze in the women’s under-49 kilogram category.
Yang lost to mainland China’s Wu Jingyu, the reigning world champion, in their semifinal match. The bout received extensive media coverage due to the pair’s unfinished match-up from the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games in which Yang was disqualified for allegedly wearing extra sensors in her socks.
Taiwan’s male taekwondo athletes, Wei Chen-yang, 2010 Asian Games 58-kilogram champion, and Chuang Tzu-te, 2009 Asian Championships 68-kilogram silver medalist, were eliminated early in the tournament.
Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw