USA’s Paige McPherson defeated world and European women’s 67-kg Taekwondo champion Sarah Stevenson of Great Britain in a repechage match to become eligible to compete for bronze. (Repechage matches pair opponents who were defeated but not eliminated in pool play.)
McPherson, 21, is competing in her first Olympics. Her opponents, besides being world and European champion, won bronze at Beijing and fourth at Sydney.
McPherson showed great balance, tremendous energy and a huge variety of techniques. She won the first round with as three-point head kick, a quick right-leg roundhouse halfway through the two-minute period. She scored two kicks two the body for one point each in the second round.
In the third round her 29-year-old opponent landed a body kick, while McPherson was awarded points for two head kicks, each of which was disallowed on review. (For this Olympics, Taekwondo practitioners wear electrified socks, gloves and vests to record strikes; strikes to the headgear are determined by two of three judges, or in the case of an appeal, by video review.)
McPherson will face Andrea St Bernard, a 32-year-old Grenada native residing in Canada, for a chance to compete for the bronze medal.
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