Para-taekwondo World Championships in Aruba

The Para-taekwondo World Championships got off to a great start when the only Finnish representative, Matti Sairanen, defeated Brazilian Jadson Santos Silva 6-4 in the semi-finals. Matti competes in the men's 68 kg category, disability class A6.

In the final, he faced Azeri Nijat Muslimov. The match was extremely tight, but at the end the score was 1-2 in favor of Azeri.

"A great fight from Mati, even though the legs were in bad shape from the hits in the first match. Azeri was really tough, but the tactic lasted almost until the end. There wasn't much left for the gold medal," says the team's coach Sampo Pajulampi. "The improvement to last year's European Championships in Moscow was clear," says Mati's father, Tapani Sairanen, who was the team manager.