Spain put an exceptional finishing touch to the European Taekwondo Championship held in Belgrade with Daniel Quesada (-74 kg) and Ivan Garcia (+87 kg) took silver on the last day, Two stars of the burgeoning Spanish Taekwondo will not attend the Paris Games due to the enormous difficulty involved in obtaining an Olympic ticket in this sport.
These two medals are in addition to the gold of the Olympic runner-up Adriana Cerezo, In the minus 49 kg category, bronze from Adrian Vicente At minus 58, so Spain concludes the tournament with four metals
Daniel Quesada, Number three in the world rankings, started the first seed and made his debut with a victory over the Ukrainian in the round of 16 Andrei Chumachenko By 2-0 (8-3, 16-7).
At the gates of the medals, he had to use himself well to beat the Russian Kadyrbysh Durov, With a comeback included, by 2-1 (4-6, 9-2, 8-5), finishing his brilliant performance in the semifinals against Azerbaijan Javad AghayevWhich he sent in another even match with a score of 2-0 (3-1, 8-7).
The Georgian was waiting for him in the final Zurab kintsurashvili, Gold at the European games in Krakow last year. The Catalan dominated the first round until the last seconds, as his opponent managed to score five points to turn the score (2-5).
So it’s time to win the second round to force the third and Quesada (7-5) did not fail despite the final Georgian Arion, Who wanted to settle the final on the fast track.
In the last two minutes of the round the equality was enormous at first , but Quesada got the direct hit with a kick to the face that left kentsurashvili stunned, Finally clearly prevailing by a ratio of 8-2.
This continental gold medal is in addition to the World Cup achieved in Guadalajara (Mexico) 2022. The Catalan also took a world bronze at Manchester 2019, a European bronze at Sofia 2021 and a European Games bronze last year in Krakow.
Silver Ivan Garcia
As for the Eve ocean Garc orca, Ranked No. 3 in the Championship, started the day with a clear 2-0 win ( 5-1 , 5-0) against modavo Drago Marin Marinescu In the knockout stages.
The most difficult was the quarterfinal match against the Azerbaijani Hamid Reza badreibadi, The one who beat him 2-0 (3-2, 4-3) before looking for the final against the Turkish Imre kotalmis attisli, The second seed, disarmed with overwhelming authority, to the point of not conceding a single point in the entire match (5-0, 7-0).
The final match was against the British Kaden Cunningham, The top seed and Olympian in Paris, which would have been a difficult and demanding predicament. The Spaniard showed again Excellent defense in the first round to win 3-1.
Already in the second, with Cunningham openly on the offensive, Ivan Garcia soon found himself with 0-5 down that he was not able to lift (3-5). So it’s time to play gold in the last two minutes of the third round, where The taekwondo player from Marsen came to win with a score of 4-1 Before finally conceding by a narrow 6-8.
Eve ocean as Irma’s neighbor investigates him The fourth major medal on the international stage After the Guadalajara World silver (Mexico) 2022, the European silver for Manchester 2022 and the continental bronze for Sofia 2021.
Dalia Santiago bronze in Para-Taekwondo
They also competed today. John Magdaleno (-62 K) and Laura Roeder O’shaughnessy (-57 kg), who said goodbye in their knockout matches.
In Para-Taekwondo, Catalan Dalia Santiago received the bronze medal in the Ki – 44 + 65 kg category, Repeating last year’s Arena in Rotterdam (Netherlands).
