After a back-and-forth match at the Makuhari Messe Hall, it was M. Jelic of Croatia who took home the gold medal, 24-21, over Lauren Williams of the United Kingdom.
Both players came out swinging, but the Croat’s counterattacks helped him even out the score in the opening round (5-4), then the second (10-10). Williams led 18-13 with 45 seconds remaining in the decsive game.
M. Jelic Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
M. Jelic was exhausted, but with 26 seconds left, he closed the gap to within three points of Williams. With 11 seconds remaining, though, the Croat evened the score with a head shot, 21-21, and then went on a tear to claim gold, 24-21.
Williams, who had to live in a caravan with her mom for two years so she could practise with the national team, said, “Not enough.” I could have had her…. I feel like I gave it my best today, and a silver medal isn’t too shabby a reward.
After beating Lauren Lee of Haiti 26-5 in the repechage, Brazil’s Milena Titoneli will face Côte d’Ivoire’s Ruth Gbagbi in the inaugural bronze medal match. The veteran athlete from Ivory Coast, though, won bronze at the Olympics.
In the final 30 seconds of a close match, she prevailed thanks to a well-placed head shot that made the score 12-6 with just 10 seconds remaining. There were ecstatic fans in Côte d’Ivoire after Gbagbi won the bronze medal 12-8.
M. Jelic Took Home the Gold Medal
Williams was knocked out by a pair of head kicks delivered by the 23-year-old Croat. The Briton pressed forward in the final three seconds, hoping to mount a comeback. As a result, the final score remained 25-22, and Jeli took home the gold. The Croat’s performance was the clearest evidence yet that she had internalised a key lesson from 2016.
After going scoreless through the first two rounds of the 67 kilogramme final against South Korea’s Kim Jan-Di, M. Jelic turned a silver medal into a gold medal in the final 10 seconds by landing a spinning back kick and then a front kick to win 8-3. This was the first of three World Taekwondo Grand Prix series meetings in 2019.
In his words, “the battle is not finished until it is done and the referee says so,” Jeli remarked.
Two weeks before her epiphany in Rome, Jeli had lost to Milena Titoneli of Brazil by a single point in the round of 16 at the World Championships in Manchester. Those feelings of dissatisfaction and anger drove Jeli two weeks later.
Final Words
In a thrilling women’s -67 kilogramme Olympic taekwondo final on Monday, Croatia’s Matea Jelic overcame a three-point deficit to win the gold medal from Britain’s Lauren Williams.
The hard work and dedication of our coaches and players has paid off, and I couldn’t be happier about the outcomes. M. Jelic medal is no fluke, and Knin’s Olympic gold was no fluke, either.
