Taekwondo: Historic Hungarian success, Omar Gergely Salim became world champion

Omar Gergely Salim started the World Championship in Mexico as the third seed. The former Olympic fifth-placed athlete defeated Sebastian Tan in the last 32 and Konstantinos Dimitropoulos in the semi-quarter final without losing a round.

In the quarterfinals, he met Kurt Bryan Barbosa and won the first round, but the Filipino managed to equal the score. In the third round, Salim started better, and he was leading 8:2 after half a minute and held on to his lead to reach the semifinals.

The scenario was similar in the quarterfinals against Chen Po-yen from Taiwan. The Hungarian athlete took the lead, his opponent equalized, but in the final round, Salim again proved to be the better taekwondoin.

In the final, he met César Rodríguez who was competing in front of his home crowd. Salim built an early lead in the first round and managed to hold on to it. Therefore, he had a 1-0 lead. In the second round, he was 6-0 up after half a minute, but the Mexican came back in the last 30 seconds, however, could not equalize. Omar Salim won the 54 kg final 2-0 to become world champion.

Salim previously won the European Championships in 2021 and 2022 and finished fifth in the 58kg event at the Tokyo Olympics.

On the final day of the World Championships on Sunday, Omar Gergely Salim's brother Sharif Gergely Salim will also take the mat, meeting Cape Verde's Domenyck Devonte Lopez at 5pm. The winner of the match will advance to the top 32 in the 58 kg category.

THE SEMIFINAL (FROM 1:11:20) AND THE FINAL (FROM 1:45:15)

TAEKWONDO
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, MEXICO
MEN'S 54KG
FINAL
Omar Gergely Salim – César Rodríguez (MEX) 2:0
The road to the final:
Top 16
Omar Gergely Salim – Sebastian Tan (MYS) 2:0
Semi-quarter final
Omar Gergely Salim – Konstantinos Dimitropoulos (GRE) 2:0
Quarterfinal
Omar Gergely Salim – Kurt Bryan Barbosa (PHL) 2:1
Semifinal
Omar Gergely Salim – Chen Po-yen (TPE) 2:1

Translated by Vanda Orosz.