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Nia Abdallah's Bronze Makes it Four Medals in Four Days for U.S. at World Championships
By Bill Kellick // USA Taekwondo // May 21, 2007
Nia Abdallah (Houston, Texas) made it four medals in four days for the U.S. team by earning bronze in the women's lightweight division Monday at the World Taekwondo Championships in Beijing. The U.S. has now matched its medal total from the last world championships with one day of competition remaining.
Abdallah, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, marched through her competition to reach the semifinals. She posted wins over Slovenia's Spela Sinkovec, Venezuela's Noemar Leal and Uzbekistan's Zuhridnova Sayyorahon to advance to the medal round. In the semifinal match, Abdallah held a 2-1 lead heading into the final round against Korea's Park Hye-Mi, but lost a 4-2 decision. Park was defeated in the gold medal match by Canada's Karine Sergerie. Norway's Mona Solheim claimed the other bronze medal. This was Abdallah's first world championship medal.
In men's bantamweight action on Monday, Brian Gallagher (Littleton, Colo.) opened with a 5-0 win over Kuwait's Saad Alhubaidah, but then lost a 5-2 decision Azerbaijan's Rovshan Mammadov. Croatia's Filip Grgic won the gold medal over Thailand's Nacha Punthong. Bronze medalists were Rafik Zohri of the Netherlands and Ferreira Marcel of Brazil.
Men's heavyweight Josh Coleman (Winston-Salem, N.C.) faced a stiff test in his opening match, losing 5-2 to two-time Olympic bronze medalist Pascal Gentil of France. But Gentil did not advance to the medal round. Mali's Daba Modibo Keita won the heavyweight gold over Iran's Morteza Rostami, while bronze medals went to Korea's Nam Yun-Bae and Morocco's Zrouri Abdelkader.
The U.S. squad will try to earn its fifth medal on Tuesday's final day of competition and surpass its 2005 medal total. In action for the U.S. on Tuesday is women's welterweight Simona Hradil (Los Angeles, Calif.), men's middleweight Antony Graf (Miami, Fla.) and women's heavyweight Lynda Laurin (Austin, Texas).
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