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Steven Lopez Adds to His Legacy Winning Fourth Consecutive World Championship Title
By Bill Kellick // USA Taekwondo // May 20, 2007
With a resounding front kick that sent Korea's Jang Chang-Ha to the mat, Steven Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas) added to his domination and legacy in the sport of Taekwondo. Lopez's sudden death victory on Sunday at the World Taekwondo Championships in Beijing gave him four consecutive world titles (2001, 2003, 2005 & 2007) to go along with his two straight Olympic gold medals (2000 & 2004), a collection of hardware unprecedented in the sport.
The 28-year-old Lopez needed six victories on Sunday to claim the welterweight title. He began with a knockout win over Andorra's Carlos Rodriguez and followed up with a 4-(-1) defeat of Great Britain's Craig Browning and a 4-(-2) victory over Brazil's Izidoro Carlos. In the quarterfinal round he needed a sudden death win to dispatch of Venezuela's Carlos Vazquez, and then posted a 1-(-2) victory against Canada's Sebastian Michaud to reach the finals against Jang. Lopez and Jang deadlocked at 0-0 at the conclusion of regulation, forcing the sudden death overtime period. Balars Toth of Hungary claimed the other bronze medal along with Michaud.
The gold medal by Lopez gave the U.S. team a total of three medals in the tournament thus far. Charlotte Craig (Murrieta, Calif.) won bronze in the women's finweight division on Friday, and Steven's sister, Diana Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas), earned bronze in the women's featherweight class on Saturday. The World Championships conclude on Tuesday.
Lopez's win was the bright spot in an otherwise tough day for American fighters. Women's flyweight Simone DeVito (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) won her opening match, 4-3, over Guatemala's Yolanda Castaneda, but then dropped a 3-(-1) decision to Russia's Anna Soboleva. Spain's Briguitte Yague won the women's flyweight title, defeating Croatia's Ana Zaninovic in the final. Tazhigulova Nazgul of Kazakhstan and Yajaira Peguero of the Dominican Republic earned the bronze medals.
Women's middleweight Dalia Avivi (Davie, Fla.) lost her opening match to Germany's Yvonne Timm, 4-2, and men's flyweight Tim Thackrey (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) lost in his first match to Great Britain's Stephen Jennings, 3-2.
The women's middleweight title was won by Mexico's Maria Espinoza. The silver medalist was Korea's Lee In-Jong and bronze medals went to China's Luo Wei and Brazil's Natalia Silva.
Jose Antonio Ramos of Spain captured the men's flyweight gold medal over Mexico's Guillermo Perez. Egypt's Tamer Bayoumi and Korea's Lee Sun-Jae were the bronze medalists.
Three more U.S. fighters take to the mat on Monday in Beijing: men's bantamweight Brian Gallagher (Littleton, Colo.), men's heavyweight Josh Coleman (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and women's lightweight Nia Abdallah (Houston, Texas).
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