Youth Olympic Taekwondo: Shafinas Abdul Rahman wins Singapore’s second medal

Story by Hariharan Rajandeeran. Photos by Les Tan/Red Sports

Suntec International Convention Centre, Tuesday, August 17, 2010 — Shafinas Abdul Rahman secured a bronze — Singapore’s second medal at the Games — after losing her bout to Nguyen Thanh Thao of Vietnam in the women’s 55kg Taekwondo semi-final.

Shafinas had earlier defeated Ioane Kaburee of Kiribati 9-0 in the quarter-final.

She sealed the quarter-final victory by delivering three offensive kicks to her opponent.

With no third place play-off for the bronze medal, Shafinas was guaranteed a medal just by qualifying for the semi-finals.

The semi-final bout between Thanh Thao and Shafinas lasted three rounds. It ended with the Viet edging the fight 9-8.

Thanh Thao had emerged with a 5-3 victory in the first round after landing a late three-point offensive kick.

The second round was a closer fight with Thanh Thao winning 3-1. The Viet’s three points was earned after she executed a defensive kick in reply to Shafinas’. The latter’s kick gaining her a solitary point.

The last round saw Shafinas make a strong comeback with a 4-1 victory. However, it was not enough as she fell short by a point to level the total tally.

Shafinas commented after her fight: “Actually I’m very happy because I gave the Vietnam girl a hard fight. I lost to her before but now I can match up with her. (The crowd) motivated me to go all out when I was down.”