anchester Delivers a Classic Grand Prix at 2015’s Series 3 Grand Prix Series 3 Location: Manchester, UK Dates: Oct. 16-18, 2015
Manchester 2015
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anchester is a city famed for both industry and sport, and for the WTF’s Grand Prix Series 3, it did exactly what an industrial expert would expect: It took a successful product, made a minimum of alterations and delivered a brilliant sporting spectacle. A total of 237 athletes from 56 countries competed for top honors at the event, which ran over three days, from October 16-18. At the conclusion of the competition, China was the only country to capture two golds, while France, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Korea, Tunisia and Uzbekistan all took home one each. Manchester is the home base of Great
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TAEKWONDO Official Publication of the WTF
Britain’s taekwondo team, and the GP venue, the Manchester Regional Arena, stands in the shadow of the famous Manchester City football stadium. Inside the darkened hall, matches took place on an illuminated center ring, with rolling LED ad boards showcasing sponsor brands, the WTF Grand Prix slogan “Here Come the Champions” and the Olympic battle cry “Every Road to Rio.” Throbbing music, swirling spotlights and the thunderous “voice of taekwondo” - ring-announcer Andy Ashworth, himself a Manchester native – combined to generate an explosive atmosphere. This combination of elements made the British city, which had hosted the first-ev-
er taekwondo Grand Prix event in 2014, a benchmark host for future GPs. In the finals of the men’s -68kg, Abolfazl “Mr Unpredictable” Yaghoubijouybari of Iran - who had been fighting with wicked venom and accuracy all day, and who had earlier defeated taekwondo legend Servet Tazegul in an awesome golden-point match – took on Korea’s Dae-hoon Lee, who had previously dispatched teammate Hun Kim in the semifinal. Lee started the match firing off a barrage of kicks, but it was the Iranian who found the range and took an early two-point lead. The Korean shot back, but Yaghoubijouybari soon regained his advantage with a perfectly placed punch,
ending the round 3-1. In the second, Lee regained his composure. In a masterly display of ring control, he maneuvered his opponent to the edge of the mats and landed a head shot, putting him ahead. From then on, the match went Lee’s way, all the way. Yaghoubijouybari almost got back into the game with a spin kick, but Lee was offering the crowd a cool-headed display of varied technique, scoring to both body and head. The fight ended 7-16 to the Korean, whose relaxed demolition of the Iranian showed why he was named the WTF’s “Male Player of the Year” in 2014. Servet Tazegul of Turkey and Hun Kim of Korea won bronzes.
Part 3 | Best of the Best
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