Taekwondo golds break 16-year wait
Singapore's 16-year wait for a Taekwondo title has ended. It was a gold for both men's and women's individual poomsae events at Expo Hall 2, on Friday morning.
Chelsea Sim scored a consistent 8.00 on both of her poomsae rounds, to easily take first place with 8.000 points, and better her 2013 SEA Games silver.
Her women's individual poomsae gold medal marks Singapore's first Taekwondo title since 1999.
The 19-year-old beat poomsae world champion Rinna Babanto (7.480) from the Philippines, who settled for silver, and Indonesia's Habiba Mutiara Mutiara (7.365), who took bronze.
At the men's individual poomsae event, Kang Rui Jie followed with another gold-medal performance for Singapore.
His final score of 8.135 put him well ahead of Indonesia's silver medallist Maulana Haidir (7.635). 2013 SEA Games bronze medallist Yong Jin Kung of Malaysia was shaky in his first poomsae round and settled for bronze again with 7.305 points.
However, Sim and Kang were unable to pull off a hat-trick at the mixed pair poomsae event, where they took bronze with 7.720 points.
They followed behind Vietnam's gold medallist pair with 7.885 points and Malaysia with 7.785 points.
Read the full report in our print edition on June 13.
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