Taekwondo Sim Jaeyoung and Jang Jun Off to a Smooth Start... Advance to Quarterfinals

Shim Jae-young is attacking Oumaima El Bouchti of Morocco in the round of 16 match of the women's Taekwondo 49kg category at the Tokyo Olympics held on the 24th at Makuhari Messe Hall A in Tokyo. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Tae-min] Taekwondo's first representatives in their Olympic debut, Shim Jae-young (26, Chuncheon City Hall) and Jang Jun (21, Korea National Sport University), advanced to the quarterfinals.

On the 24th, Shim Jae-young won 19-10 against Umaima El Boushti (Morocco) in the women's 49kg round of 16 on the first day of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Taekwondo competition held at Makuhari Messe Hall A in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. In the match, which consists of three rounds of two minutes each, she took the lead by scoring a body kick followed by consecutive punch attacks right after the start of the first round, leading 4-0, and maintained control throughout.

Shim Jae-young is a lightweight powerhouse who won the women's 46kg category twice consecutively at the 2017 Muju and 2019 Manchester World Championships, and this is her first Olympic appearance. In January last year, she secured her ticket to Tokyo by defeating Kim So-hee, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic gold medalist, at the final national team selection tournament.

Shim Jae-young will face Japan's Miyu Yamada, the host country's athlete who made a comeback victory 10-9 against Taiwan's Su Po-ya, in the quarterfinals. Yamada won a bronze medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.

Jang Jun also achieved a crushing victory of 26-6 in just 13 seconds of the third round against Kurt Brian Barbosa (Philippines) in the men's 58kg round of 16, his first match. In this tournament, except for the medal matches, if the point difference between the two players exceeds 20 points after the second round, the match is stopped and the leading player is declared the winner by point difference.

Jang Jun will face Adrian Vicente Yunta (Spain), who defeated Rui Braganca (Portugal) 24-9, in the quarterfinals. This will be their first encounter.