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Kwon You-jeong wins gold medal in Paris Grand Slam 2017

Posted February. 13, 2017 07:02,   

Updated February. 13, 2017 07:10

한국어
Kwon You-jeong, whose world ranking at 83rd in women’s 57 kilogram category, has beat No. 2 athlete to win the gold medal in the Paris Grand Slam 2017.

The 21-year-old judoka had half-point win over Hélène Receveaux of France amid overwhelming cheering for the latter by home fans in the final round held in Paris, France on Sunday.

After getting a victory at the first round match by default, Kwon won by an ippon both Lola Benarroche of France (ranked 17th) in the second round and Rafaela Silva (ranked 3rd) of Brazil in the third. Then, the Korean judoka beat Tsukasa Yoshida of Japan, who is ranked 4th in the world, by half point in the semifinal.

Kwon defeated Kim Jan-di, who has been the Korean champion and Olympian at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, in the first round competition for recruiting national team members in October last year, heralding her strides.

Kwon was singled out by Bae Sang-il, the coach for women’s national judo team as a promising athlete for the future of Korean judo. Chung Bo-kyung, the silver medalist in the 48-kilogram category in the Rio Olympics, beat Munkhbat Urantsetseg of Mongolia, who is ranked No. 1, through the referee’s discipline against the latter to clinch the gold medal.



Seung-Kun Lee why@donga.com