Latin America showed great strength and dominance in taekwondo: Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and Guatemala celebrated gold and bronze medals in electrifying combats.
The exciting taekwondo events took place at the COP Urban Sports Coliseum and began early with the qualifying duels for the decisive battles. The athletes faced off in the Kyorugi discipline to determine the first medalists of this sport, which promotes respect and self-control.
In the women’s 49kg category, the Mexican Andrea Zambrano won the gold medal by defeating the Uruguayan Maria Grippoli 2-0 in the final.
Then, in the men’s 58kg category, the Argentinian Ignacio Espínola claimed the gold medal by overcoming Matheus Goncalves 2-1 in a fiercely contested fight that was decided at the very end. Noteworthy, the winning athlete is the nephew of Carlos Espínola, the Argentine with the most Olympic medals in history, and is coached by Sebastián Crismanich, a taekwondo gold medalist at London 2012.
In the women’s 57kg category, the Mexican athlete Zaira Delgado was crowned champion after beating the United States’ Montana Miller 2-0, demonstrating a remarkable power in her attacks and an admirable endurance throughout the match.
Finally, in the last fight of the day, the big winner in the men’s 68kg was the Chilean Cristian Olivero who, in a dramatic and decisive finish, managed to get on the podium and bathed in gold by defeating the United States’ Maikol Rodríguez 2-0.
