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Josh Coleman Captures Heavyweight Gold at U.S. Open
By Bill Kellick // USA Taekwondo // February 16, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Josh Coleman (Winston-Salem, N.C.) won the heavyweight division on Friday at the 16th Annual U.S. Open Taekwondo Championships. Coleman defeated Canada's Eric Ahn, 4-1, in the final.
"I felt great today," said Coleman. "I started to warm up as the day went on and kept getting better and better. I felt under control and was very patient."
The Netherlands and Canada both earned two gold medals on Friday. Rafik Zohri of the Netherlands won the men's bantamweight division, beating China's Li Zhi, 8-3, and Dennis Bekkers made it two gold medals for the Netherlands with a 4-3 victory over Peter Lopez of Peru in the men's featherweight final.
Radomir Samardzic and Dasha Peregoudova both captured gold medals for Canada. Samardzic defeated Michael Oogink of the Netherlands, 1-0, in the men's middleweight division, and Peregoudova bested Annette Deursen of the Netherlands in the women's middleweight final, 8-5.
Other gold medal winners on Friday were China's Feng Fei, who defeated Germany's Demet Oezcan in sudden death for the women's bantamweight title; Germany's Pinar Budak, who beat Deborah Lauz of the Netherlands, 5-4, in the women's featherweight final; and Laurence Rase of Belgium, who defeated China's Wang Mongli, 7-2, in the women's heavyweight class.
Friday's bronze medalists were: John Hansel (Ashburn, Va.) and Konstantinos Konstantinidis (GER) in men's bantamweight; Mathew Rodriguez (PUR) and Tal Moriah (Houston, Texas) in men's featherweight; Antwine Jackson (Fayetteville, N.C.) and Erich Kuehnle (CAN) in men's middleweight; Maikel Reichert (NED) and Ulvi Kaya (GER) in men's heavyweight; Shannon Condie (CAN) and Jessica Johnson (CAN) in women's bantamweight; Stephanie Beckel (Miami, Fla.) and Liu Jing (CHN) in women's featherweight; Brandi Powers (Nottingham, Md.) and Susen Berger (GER) in women's middleweight; and Maia Eubanks (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Marcela Szczotka (CAN) in women's heavyweight.
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