Panipak wins gold at Olympics

SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2021
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Taekwondo champion Panipak Wongpattanakit struck gold for Thailand at the 2020 Japan Olympics on Saturday.

The 23-year-old bronze winner at the 2016 Olympics defeated Cerezo Iglesis of Spain in the final of the women's 49kg class.

Panipak met Adriana Cerezo Iglesis from Spain in the final battle for gold on Saturday evening (7pm Thailand time).

At the outset, Panipak was expected to face tough opposition from Sim Jae-young of South Korea, Wu Jingyu of China and Tijana Bogdanović from Serbia.

However, all of them were defeated before the final.

Sim Jae-young lost to Japan's Miyu Yamada in the quarter-final, while Wu Jingyu was beaten by Iglesis, also in the quarters, after the Spaniard had beaten Bogdanović in the round of 16.

Panipak accounted for Yamada in the semi-final.