Korea's Jung Ha-eun wins gold in taekwondo poomsae

Korea's Jung Ha-eun won the gold medal in the women's taekwondo poomsae at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Thursday, giving the country its first taekwondo gold in the ongoing competition.

In the women's individual poomsae final at Toyohashi Gymnasium in Toyohashi, southeast of Nagoya, Jung won with 9.310 points to top the podium.

Juliana Mykhail Candelaria of the Philippines won the silver medal with 9.130 points, while bronze medals went to Thitaree Kaewolanwasu of Thailand with 9.040 and Yuiko Niwa of Japan with 8.910.

Jung became the second Korean woman to win individual poomsae gold at the Asian Games, following Cha Yea-eun, who won the event's title at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

Korea has won one gold and one bronze in the individual event and one silver in the team event since the discipline became an official Asian Games event in 2018.

Jung scored 9.320 points in her first routine, receiving 3.700 points for accuracy and 5.620 for presentation. In her second performance, she earned 5.560 points for technique and 3.740 for presentation, for a total of 9.300.

Her final score was the average of the scores from the two routines.

Jung started her taekwondo career at the age of 8 and chose to specialize in poomsae when she was in her second year of high school.

She won the gold medal in the pair event at the 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships.

Yonhap