Taekwondo Athlete Moon Jin-ho Wins Bronze in First AG, Falls Short of Finals

South Korean taekwondo rising prospect Moon Jin-ho (Korea National Sport University) has claimed a bronze medal at his first-ever Asian Games.

Moon fell to Thailand's Banlung Tubtimdang with a round score of 1-2 (9-0, 0-14, 5-5) in the semifinals of the men's 68kg taekwondo kyorugi event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held today (the 3rd) at the Toyohashi General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, missing out on a spot in the finals.

Asian Games taekwondo kyorugi does not hold a third-place playoff, awarding bronze medals to both athletes who are defeated in the semifinals.

In the preceding Round of 16 and quarterfinals, Moon defeated Omar Hantouli (Palestine) and Samirkhon Ababakirov (Kazakhstan) respectively, both with a round score of 2-0.

In the semifinals, he secured a dominant 9-0 victory in the first round by successfully landing two torso attacks and one head attack.

However, in the second round, he conceded an initial torso attack followed by consecutive torso and head attacks, and fell behind 0-10 after receiving a penalty.

He rushed his attacks to recover, but conceded 4 more points from a spinning torso attack, losing 0-14.

In the final third round, after taking a 1-0 lead due to an opponent penalty, he gave up successive torso attacks to trail 1-4.

Although he tied the score at 5-5 late in the round following mutual penalties, he lost the superiority decision.

Moon has made a name for himself this year by successively winning the Ulaanbaatar Asian Championships, the Chuncheon Korea Open, and the Muju Grand Prix.

Last year, he captured titles at the Fujairah Open, the Wuxi Grand Slam Challenge, and the Bangkok Grand Prix Challenge, while also harvesting a silver medal at the Nairobi Under-21 World Championships.

Although he missed out on the Asian Games top of the podium, he gained valuable international multi-sport event experience by reaching the podium in his debut appearance.

The South Korean kyorugi national team saw Ahn Hyang-sik (Yong In University) in the men's 58kg and Kwak Min-ju (Korea National Sport University) in the women's 67kg win bronze medals yesterday.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.