Golden girl takes Jordan’s Asian taekwondo medal haul to six

AMMAN — Juliana Al Sadiq retained her gold medal at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in South Korea to complete a memorable event for Jordan, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The Kingdom won a total of six medals, with Sadiq’s triumph the icing on the cake from a memorable weekend.

She remains the best on the continent for the -67kg category, and was joined on the podium on the last day of competition by Olympic medallist Saleh Al Sharabaty, who won -80kg silver, and Zaid Al Halawani, who won a -63kg bronze medal.

These successes were added to the silver medals won earlier in the event by Luay Humaidan (-54kg), Zaid Mustafa (-68kg) and Fahd Ammar (-87kg). Sadiq lived up to her top seed billing by surging into the final with wins over Nguyen Thi (Vietnam) and Mukro Khalimova (Tajikistan), before overcoming China’s Junhong Liu in the gold medal match.

This was her third Asian gold following last year’s win in Beirut and her first in 2018.

Meanwhile, Al Sharabaty, silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics and No. 1 in Asia, beat Mongolia’s Altangerel Azbayar and South Korea’s Seo Gan Woo before losing in the final to Uzbekistan’s Slave Shukhrat. He was also a winner last year in Beirut. Al Halawani settled for bronze after losing at the semifinal stage to South Korea’s Tim Tae-Young. He too medalled last year when he won silver in Beirut.