# Taekwondo 'God' Park Tae-jun defeats France and advances to semifinals

South Korea Taekwondo national team member Park Tae-jun is celebrating after winning against France's Syrian Labe in the quarterfinals of the men's 58 kg class at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on the 7th (local time).

Park Tae-jun (20, Kyung Hee University), a Korean figurehead aiming to restore the pride of the Taekwondo home country, has advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Park Tae-jun, ranked 5th in the world in Olympic sparring, defeated host country France’s rising star Sirial Labé (ranked 11th) in a close match with a score of 2-1 (8-5 3-4 5-4) in the quarterfinals of the men’s 58 kg class held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on the 7th (local time).

Park Tae-jun is likely to face Mohamed Khalil Zendoubi (Tunisia) in the semifinals. Zendoubi, ranked 1st in the world in this weight class and a strong candidate to win, will play Bailey Lewis (Australia, ranked 14th) in the quarterfinals on this day.

Park Tae-jun, who was first selected as a national team member in 2022 while attending Hansung High School, is participating in the Olympics for the first time in his life. In the national team selection tournament (3 matches, 2 wins) held in February of this year, Park Tae-jun won two consecutive matches against his senior Jang Jun (24) to earn a ticket to Paris.

Korea, which ended up with no gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has high expectations for Park Tae-jun. Park Tae-jun won the men's 58kg class at the Manchester World Grand Prix in October 2022 and the men's 54kg class at the Baku World Championships in May last year.

The 58kg class in particular is a weight class where Korean Taekwondo players such as Lee Dae-hoon, Kim Tae-hoon, and Jang Jun have dominated the world stage, but none of them have won a gold medal at the Olympics. Lee Dae-hoon's best performance is the silver medal he won at the 2012 London Games. [파워볼사이트](https://www.outlookindia.com/plugin-play/2024년-파워볼사이트-추천-순위-안전한-파워볼실시간-게임-사이트-top15-news-334143
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