© WTU

By Pau Aguilar of Spain

Jang (Korea), Lee (Korea), Khramtcov (Russia), Larin (Russia), Wongpattanakit (Thailand), Jones (Great Britain), Gbagbi (Ivory Coast) and Walkden (Great Britain) are still on top of the divisions.

Take a look at the current status of the eight Olympic rankings of World Taekwondo(WT) as of February 1st 2020. The same four male athletes and four female fighters that reigned in January have managed to retain their priveleged positions in front of the race to earn a ticket for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

In Men’s -80 kg, Khramtcov (RUS) is followed by the double world champion Beigi Harchegani (AZE), who took back the second position after overtaking the reigning Olympic champion two months ago, Cheick Sallah Cisse (CIV), one of the Taekwondo stars sponsored by Daedo. The three of them keep standing out as the kings of the division, while in the Men’s heaviest class, Men’s +80 kg, Larin (RUS), In (KOR) and Bachmann (Germany), who overtook Issoufou (NIG) –Daedo athlete– last month, and Trajkovic (Slovenia) are the competitors who set the standard of the class at the moment.

Another Daedo fighter, the Korean superstar Dae-hoon Lee, reigns once again on the highest position of the Men’s -68 kg category with more than 100 points ahead of their pursuer, world champion Bradly Sinden (GBR). In Men’s -58 kg, Jun Jang (Korea) took away the throne from his compatriot Tae-hun Kim (Korea Daedo Team) in October and has managed to keep it once again. Jesus Tortosa (Spain –Daedo Team-) lost the 3rd position because of Vito Dell’aquila’s (Italy) irruption in the podium of the division in January, overtaking no less than 3 fighters, and retains the 4th spot of the category.

Panipak Wongpattanakit from Thailand retains the 1st place in Women’s -49 kg with 532.54 points, almost 130 points ahead of Korean star Jae-young Sim and a bit less than 200 points more than Tijana Bogdanovic from Serbia, member of Team Daedo, who has regained the 3rd spot. Double Olympic champion Jingyu Wu (China) remains in the top 10, holding the 7th position.

In Women’s -57 kg, double Olympic champion Jade Jones (GBR) remains untouchable as the solid leader, followed by Lee (KOR), who keeps her place in the top 2. Double world champion Irem Yaman, another Daedo athlete, overtook Kudashova from Russia in January and keeps her spot in the top 3 of the class again.

Nur Tatar’s silver in Manchester gave the Turkish star the first place in the Women’s -67 kg ranking last June and she hadn’t allowed anyone to overcome her as the queen of the category since then. But with the new year 2020 she saw Ruth Gbagbi from Ivory Coast overtook her and 4 other athletes to reach the top of the division and the Ivorian has managed to retain her privileged position. The second spot is now hold by Matea Jelic from Croatia, with Tatar (Turkey) completing the top 3. In Women’s +67 kg, no significant changes have affected the leaders of the race, with Walkden (GBR) and Zheng (CHN) mantaining their privileged spots and Mandic (Serbia, Team Daedo competitor) consolidating her 4th place.

The points awarded to each athlete take into consideration all the events held until the end of January 2019 on the World Taekwondo official calendar.

Women’s -49 kg

Women’s -57 kg

Women’s -67 kg

Women’s +67 kg

Men’s -58 kg

Men’s -68 kg

Men’s -80 kg

Men’s +80 kg