Kang Sang-hyun (Ulsan City Sports Council), a two-time World Taekwondo Championships winner, has claimed a bronze medal in his very first Asian Games.

Competing in the men's over 80kg taekwondo kyorugi semifinals at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Toyohashi General Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, today (the 3rd), Kang lost to Marat Mavlonov of Uzbekistan with a round score of 0-2 (8-15, 8-8), failing to advance to the final.

Asian Games taekwondo kyorugi awards bronze medals to both losing semifinalists without holding a third-place match.

Kang secured South Korea's first-ever Asian Games medal in this weight class.

At the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games, Lee Seung-hwan, and at the 2022 Hangzhou Games held in 2023, Lee Sun-gi were both eliminated in the round of 16.

After receiving a bye through the round of 16, Kang defeated Jack Mercer of Thailand with a round score of 2-0 in the quarterfinals, but could not overcome Mavlonov in the semifinals.

In the first round, Kang conceded successive head and trunk attacks to fall behind 0-9. He attempted a comeback with a trunk attack and a spinning trunk attack worth 4 points, but dropped the first round 8-15.

In the second round, he took a 6-0 lead by successfully executing three consecutive trunk attacks.

However, with just 3 seconds remaining, he conceded a head attack to tie the score at 8-8, and ultimately lost on a superiority decision.

After winning the men's 87kg division at the 2023 Baku World Championships, Kang went on to conquer the over 87kg division at the Wuxi Championships last year, reaching the top of the World Championships for two consecutive editions.

Kang, who began taekwondo after watching his cousin's match in his first year of middle school, once contemplated quitting his athletic career due to a slump in performance.

However, after losing his first match in the national team trials, he won six consecutive matches in the repechage to earn the national태극마크 (taegeuk mark) for the first time, and now has stepped onto the podium at his first Asian Games.

On the same day, Song Da-bin (Ulsan City Sports Council) advanced to the final in the women's over 67kg category, while Moon Jin-ho (Korea National Sport University) won a bronze medal in the men's 68kg category.
(Photo: Yonhap News)