Spain's Gonzalez wins men's taekwondo -58kg gold

Spain’s Joel Gonzalez celebrates his victory over South Korea’s Lee Daehoon at the end of their men’s taekwondo gold medal bout in the category under 58 kg as part of the London 2012 Olympic games, at the ExCel centre in London.

LONDON - Double world champion Joel Gonzalez of Spain added Olympic gold to his collection as he beat South Korea’s Lee Dae-Hoon in the men’s under-58kg taekwondo final here on Wednesday.

World champion Lee had come down from the non-Olympic under-63kg category to compete in London but went down 17-8.

In a low-scoring bronze medal contest Russia’s Alexey Denisenko beat Safwan Khalil of Australia 3-1.

The second bronze medal went to Oscar Munoz of Colombia who successfully challenged a last second three-point kick to beat Thailand’s Pen-Ek Karaket 6-4.

Gonzalez struck first in the opening round of the final, connecting with a three-point head kick to open up a 5-2 lead.

That kick was not originally scored but he challenged the referee’s decision and was awarded the score after a video review.

Gonzalez said that was a crucial moment in the bout.

“It goes without saying that it was very important and the three points meant I had a big advantage,” he said.

“I thought it was clear that I touched him so I asked my coach to challenge it. It was then clear, they gave it to me and of course it was important to gain that advantage.”

Lee had closed the gap with two unanswered points until a flurry of late kicks in the second round saw Gonzalez extend his lead to 8-4.

In the final round a brutal axe-kick that connected with Lee’s mouth, sending him crashing to the canvas and drawing blood, provided the final nail in the Korean’s coffin.

His camp made a hopeful challenge, claiming a three-point head kick for him, but that was rejected and his lingering hopes of victory died.

Gonzalez was given a scare by Sweden’s Uno Sanli (7-6) and Khalil (5-3) in his first two rounds but easily overcame Munoz 13-4 in the semi-final.

Both Gonzalez and Lee are reigning world champions but as Lee’s division is not included in the Olympic programme he opted to come down in weight to make it to the Games.

But he denied the extra weight loss had adversely affected him.

“The category itself is not that important, it was a decision taken by the Korean Federation and I just followed it,” he said.

“Of course when you lose weight you have less energy, that’s inevitable but other athletes also go through weight reduction before the competition and they’re already flyweights.