Taekwondo Athlete Kwak Min-ju Wins Bronze After Losing to Archrival Sobirjonova

Competing in her first Asian Games, Kwak Min-ju (Korea National Sport University) fell short against her archrival Ozoda Sobirjonova of Uzbekistan in the semifinals, capturing a bronze medal.

Kwak lost to Sobirjonova with a round score of 0-2 in the semifinals of the women's 67kg taekwondo kyorugi event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Toyohashi General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on October 2, failing to advance to the finals.

Taekwondo kyorugi at the Asian Games awards bronze medals to both losing semifinalists without a separate third-place playoff match.

This marks South Korea's first medal in this weight class in eight years, following Kim Jan-di's silver medal at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

However, Kwak's failure to cross the threshold of the finals dashed hopes of winning the country's first gold medal in the women's 67kg division in 20 years, since Hwang Kyung-sun at the 2006 Doha Games.

Kwak once again failed to overcome the barrier posed by her archrival Sobirjonova.

Having lost 1-2 to Sobirjonova in the final of the WT President's Cup Asian region tournament last year and 0-2 in the final of the Asian Championships earlier this year, Kwak was unable to get past her in this semifinal match either.

Kwak advanced to the semifinals by defeating Dorji Yangki of Bhutan 2-0 in the round of 16 and Raran Al-Rawashdeh of Jordan 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

Standing tall at 185 cm, Kwak began her competitive athletic career in earnest during her third year of middle school when a taekwondo team was founded at her school, following a coach's recommendation.

Following her gold medal at the Bangkok Grand Prix Challenge last year and silver medal at the Asian Championships this year, she has now reached the podium at her very first Asian Games as well.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.