Follow the Olympic qualifiers live. Jenna competed on Friday and Matti competes on Sunday:
Real-time result tracking:
Saturday: https://wt.uptkd.com/control_accesos_ant.php?camp=30
Friday: https://wt.uptkd.com/control_accesos_ant.php?camp=29
You should click on the ”show fights” button, and at the bottom of the page you will see the order of the fights in the field.
Sunday 9.5.
Matti's first match number was 111. The opponent was the fast and skilled Imamaddin Khalilov from Azerbaijan, to whom Matti lost 19-3. Azerbaijan won the series and will go to the Paralympics. Mat's ranking is 3.
Saturday 8.5.
On Saturday, Suvi Mikkonen competed for the Finns. In the opening match, he faced 112 Dutchman Bodine Schoenmakers (opponent information in taekwondo data>>). Suvi won the match 15-11.
In the second round, Suvi beat experienced Belgian Rahellah Aseman! The fourth time he said it. Next came a tough Pole who was much stronger.
Yle reports: https://yle.fi/urheilu/3-11922634
Also read the advance story about Suvi's qualifying from YLE>>
In summary from Saturday, Suvi's wonderful performances can be stated. Even though there were no points in the last match, knocking down Aseman was a tough feat. 3 previous attempts did not produce results, but in the most important place the performance was downright terrible.
Friday 7.5.
Jenna's match number was 211. The opponent was the experienced Cecilia Castro-Burgos from Spain, who has e.g. three EC medals. Castro-Burgos was stronger with 35-5 points.
Among other Finns, Niko Saarinen competed in the men's under 58 kg category on Friday. In the match, he defeated Sevede Naghibzadeh, who fought with 108 refugee status. Next in the match was the French 220 Cyrian Ravet, to whom Niko lost 30-10.
Friday Charts>>
Cecilia Castro-Burgos in taekwondo data>>
Friday's results>>
In summary from Friday, of course, it can be stated that the Finns did not reach the Olympic place. Jenna's coach Teemu Heino stated:”Been really broken with injuries already last ”season” and the same thing unfortunately continued when Jenna's cross-ties snapped just before Christmas in spars. There was no time to recover from the surgery before the qualifiers, so we took the chance that the knee would have time to fully recover for these games. For a while it looked good when we were able to do some training at the end of February, but there wasn't enough time to heal the 100%. And with an almost healed knee, you can't do well in these races. The match itself is not worth analysing any further, in my opinion. The knee could not take the full impact and the match was therefore very clear.
An interesting piece of information is related to Omar Salim, representing Hungary. He will be only the second 2nd generation Olympic athlete in taekwondo. His coach father Gergerly Salim won the under 50 kg category in the colors of Denmark in Barcelona, where taekwondo was the demonstration sport. Spain's Jesus Tortosa competed in Seoul 1988 and his son Jesus Tortosa in Rio.
The news is updated.
