Rahul Thapa fights back to win Taekwondo gold
MUMBAI: Powered by the brilliance of Saurabh Gupta, who scored two goals, St. Stanislaus High School went on to record a fighting 32 win, after leading 3-1 at half-time, against Maharashtra Military School in a boys’ semi-final match of the MHAL orgainsed InterSchools (Boys’ and Girls’ Under-16) Hockey Tournament played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate. Stanislaus will meet Don Bosco High School in the final. Don Bosco got the better of Guru Nanak High School 6-5 via the penalty shootout after the teams were tied 1-all at the end of regulation period. For Don Bosco the goals came through Faizuddin Siddique who scored in normal time and in the tie-breaker. Kris Benson, Yash Jadhav, Atharva Shelke and Nihal Dudwalkar, were the other players who were successful in the penalty shootout. Guru Nanak scored through Rahul Chaturvedi two goals and one each from Prashant Mourya, Zogeb Shaikh and Dhrui Prathamesh. Rahul Thapa from Professional Taekwondo Academy, Sonipat defeated Ajinkya Parab from Swaraj Sports Foundation, Mumbai to win the gold medal in the Senior Kyorugi Male (Fin weight) category of the inaugural Mumbai Consul General Cup National Taekwondo Championship, at the Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex, Dharavi.
The inaugural event is supported by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Mumbai and organised by KUKKIWON (World Taekwondo Headquarters).
In the first round, Thapa’s opponent, Parab held the upper hand as he had inflicted three kicks to the former’s torso to take his score to 6, while the former’s solitary punch helped to score 1 point. However, Thapa fought back in the final seconds of round with three kicks to his opponent’s torso to decrease the margin to two points and trailed 4-6.
Thapa was constantly trying to break the strong defence of his opponent throughout the second round and finally found an opening to face kick his opponent which pushed him off the mat. This enabled Thapa to take the lead with 5 seconds left on the clock, three points for his lethal attack and one point for the gunjum (where opponent is kicked out of the mat). Thapa thus won his first gold medal in a senior category.
Earlier, a colourful ceremony marked the opening of the Taekwondo Championship, in which over around 800 leading Taekwondo exponents from across the nation were present. The occasion was graced by Mr. Soung-Eun Him, Consule General of the Republic of Korea in Mumbai, and Chief Guest, MLA Pankaja Munde-Palwe, Minister of Rural Development, Women and Child Welfare.
Munde’s own son is taking part in the tournament and hence said, “I’m like any other parent in this tournament as I’m nervous for my son. I think Taekwondo is great for building your body core and even Sachin Tendulkar told my son to continue with it as he practices it himself ”.
Both the distinguished guests were honoured with a 6th and 7th dan black belt honorary rank respectively, which was followed by a Taekwondo demonstration from KUKKIWON, World Taekwondo Headquarters. Results:
Senior Kyorugi (Male Fin weight): Rahul Thapa, Sonipat (Gold) bt Ajinkya Parab, Mumbai (Silver) 8-7.
Senior Kyorugi (Male Heavyweight): Aseemsingh Sodi, Mumbai (Gold) bt Anup Pegu, Mumbai (Silver) 10-6.
Senior Kyorugi (U-51 Kg Female): Durmaya Thapa, Delhi (Gold) bt Khushi Bhati, Delhi (Silver).
Junior Kyorugi (U-48 Kg Male): Deepanshu, Sonipat (Gold) bt Himaghna Baruah, Assam (Silver).
Junior Kyorugi (U-51 Kg Male): Sree Hari, Tamil Nadu (Gold) bt Vikash Jha, Delhi (Silver).
Junior Kyorugi (U-37 Female): Ramani Gajmal, Mumbai (Gold) bt Aditee Maurya, Mumbai (Silver).
Sub Junior Poomsae (Male): Rajveer Jain, Mumbai (Gold);
Pee Wee Kyurogi(U-32 Kg Male): Aryaveer Jain, Mumbai (Gold).