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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Rio Olympic taekwondo tournament ended on Saturday after China's Zheng Shuyin and Azerbaijan's Radik Isaev won the women's above 67kg and the men's above 80kg respectively.
With Zheng's victory, China was second to South Korea, who earned two golds and three bronzes, on the taekwondo medal list with two golds. Great Britain was placed third with one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Asia only had two gold medals in London four years ago when South Korea failed to collect the maximum of four medals for the first time at Olympics since taekwondo was included into the Olympic program in Sydney 2000.
China and South Korea each pocketed two golds in Rio and Jordan made its first ever Olympic gold with Ahmad Abughaush's victory in men's -68 kg.
China's Zhao Shuai and Zheng Shuyin topped in men's -58kg and women's above 67kg respectively. Zhao, the bronze medalist in the 2015 world championships, is the first Chinese man to take Olympic gold and Zheng kept the record that Chinese women's team won at least one gold medal since 2000. South Korea claimed gold medals in women's -49 kg and women's -67 kg by Kim Sohui and Oh Hyeri.
"We proved that China can win the gold medal in both men and women's competition. China has a lot of potential young players like Zhao Shuai and Zheng Shuyin," said China headcoach Guan Jianmin.
European taekwondo players collected five gold medals in London, but this time they just claimed two with Jade Jones (Britain, women's -57kg) and Radik Isaev (Azerbaijan, men's +80kg ), who gave Azerbaijan their first Olympic taekwondo medals. Jones defend her Olympic title to become the first woman with multiple Olympic medals in the women's -57kg. The 23-year-old now is the fourth woman with multiple gold medals in taekwondo.
"I was just so proud of myself for getting to the final again, I wanted to become a legend, a double Olympic champion at 23 years old. I can't believe it," said Jones.
Africa emerged as new taekwondo force in Rio as Cheick Sallah Cisse earned Cote d'Ivoire's first ever Olympic gold medal with a dramatic head kick in the last second of the men's -80kg taekwondo final.
"I want to encourage everybody who does a small sport. You just have to believe in your dreams and I am an example for it that you can achieve everything if you believe," said Cisse, who took up taekwondo at the age of eight.
The four-day taekwondo competition at Carioca Arena 3 also saw other historic medalists.
In the bronze medal contests of women's -57kg, Hedaya Wahba become the first Egyptian woman stood on the podium while Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin became the first woman representing Iran to win an Olympic medal in any sports.
Maicon Siqueira, the bronze medalist in men's +80kg,became the first male player to win an Olympic taekwondo medal in a men's event, and Tunisia's Oueslati got their first taekwondo medal with the bronze in the men's -80kg.
"I hope Brazil has a better visibility of this sport. There is a lot of talent in the sport. Other countries that win medals have lots of champions there," said Siqueira.
