Park Tae-joon moved one step closer to South Korea's first men's taekwondo 58kg gold medal in history by defeating the world No. 1 in the semifinals. 

World No. 5 Park Tae-joon defeated world No. 1 Muhammad Halil Zendoubi (Tunisia) 2-0 (6-2, 13-6) in the quarterfinals of the men's 58kg taekwondo event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, on Sunday (July 7) at 11:36 p.m. ET.

For the first time since Sydney 2000, the South Korean taekwondo team was "no-golded" in Tokyo three years ago. Four athletes, led by Park Tae-joon, will be competing a day apart in Paris in an attempt to reclaim the honor.

Taekwondo will have new rules starting with the Paris Games. Until the last Games in Tokyo, taekwondo consisted of three two-minute rounds, followed by a fourth round of overtime if a winner could not be determined, with the winner being the first to score two points. Points were accumulated in the third round until overtime, but this rule was changed in Paris.

The three two-minute rounds have the same rules, but the points from each round are not cumulative. At the end of each 메이저사이트 round, the next round will be played at 0-0, with the winner taking two of the three rounds. Gold points have been removed, and in the event of a tie in each round, skill scoring will be used to favor the athlete who attempts the most difficult skills. 

Park defeated Johandri Granado (Venezuela) 2-0 (12-0 12-0) in the round of 16 and 'nemesis' World No. 11 Sirien Labet (France) 2-1 (8-5, 3-4, 5-3) in the quarterfinals to reach the last four.

Park will face the world number one in the quarterfinals. Park showed a calm performance in the first round, taking a 2-0 lead with a body attack. At 2-2, Park scored with three seconds left in the first round with a series of kicks to win the first round 6-2.

After a promising start, Taejoon Park allowed a head attack in the second round and went down 0-3. However, he soon followed up with a head attack of his own to tie the score at 3-3. Zendubi scored a point shortly afterward to take a 4-3 lead. 

Park then followed up with a spinning kick to the body to extend the lead to 8-3. With 49 seconds left, Park scored a head attack to cut the deficit to 8-6, but a video review with 20 seconds left in the match ruled the head attack a point, and he added the extra point to seal the 13-6 victory.