Taekwondo Kang Sang-hyun wins bronze medal in men's over-80kg class at Asian Games

(Toyohashi [Japan] = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Dong-han = Kang Sang-hyeon (Ulsan Metropolitan City Sports Council), who won the World Championships twice, won a bronze medal in his first Asian Games.

Kang Sang-hyun failed to advance to the finals by losing to Marat Mablonov (Uzbekistan) with a round score of 0-2 (8-15 8-8) in the men's over-80kg semifinals of the Taekwondo Sparring at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Toyohashi General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on the 3rd.

In the Asian Games Taekwondo Competition, bronze medals are awarded to both athletes who lost in the semifinals without a bronze medal match.

Kang Sang-hyun gave Korea its first Asian Games medal in this weight class.

Seunghwan Lee at the 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Tournament and Seongi Lee at the 2022 Hangzhou Tournament held in 2023 were both eliminated in the round of 16.

Kang Sang-hyun, who passed the round of 16 by default, defeated Jack Mercer (Thailand) with a round score of 2-0 in the quarterfinals, but was unable to overcome Mablonov's wall in the semifinals.

Kang Sang-hyun allowed head and body attacks in succession in the first round, falling behind 0-9, and then chased after him with a body attack and a spinning body attack that gave him 4 points, but lost the first round with 8-15.

In the second round, he took a 6-0 lead with three consecutive body attacks. However, he gave up a head attack with 3 seconds left in the last minute, tying the score at 8-8, but lost in a superiority decision.

After winning the men's 87kg class at the 2023 Baku World Championships, Kang Sang-hyun won the over-87kg class at last year's Wuxi Games, reaching the top of the world championships for the second time in a row.

Kang Sang-hyun, who started Taekwondo after watching his cousin compete in his first year of middle school, once considered quitting his career as a athlete due to poor grades.

However, after losing in the first match of the national team selection match, he won 6 consecutive wins in the repechage match, wore the Taegeuk symbol for the first time, and also reached the podium in his first Asian Games.

On the same day, Song Da-bin (Ulsan Metropolitan City Sports Council) in the women's over-67kg class advanced to the finals, and Moon Jin-ho (Korea National Sport University) in the men's 68kg class won the bronze medal.