Patiwat makes it two in a row in Universiade Games

[UNIVERSIADE] Talented Patiwat Thongsalap retained his Universiade crown after powering past Alireza Nassrazadany of Iran 5-3 in the men's lightweight taekwondo final showdown at the Gymnasium 6 inside Thammasat Rangsit Sports Complex.

The Trang-native Patiwat made much of impact at the previous Universiade in Izmir, Turkey two years ago following his remarkable success to win an unprecedented gold in the biennial sports extravaganza for Thailand.

It was the host nation's second gold in the 24th Universiade after a men's sprinting team including Sittichai Suwonprateep handed the Kingdom the first gold from the 4x100m relay on the previous day.

Patiwat was in aggressive form in the final against Nassrazady, who won the gold medal at the last year's World University Taekwondo Championships in Valencia, Spain and the bronze medallist at the Doha Asian Games on the same year. Both sides traded powerful kicks to tie 3-3 after the first round, but Patiwat landed another kick to surge ahead the challenger 4-3 in the second round.

The third round saw the Thai exponent in devastating form, kicking aggressively to the Iranian's body to score two more points to take the commanding 6-3 lead. In the final round, Patiwat tried to do more, but his attempts turned sour as one point was deducted from his overall performance. He eventually beat the Iranian 5-3 to successfully defend his title.

With the victory, he is assured of claiming Bt1 million cash incentive from the National Sports Development Fund.

The Nation