Taekwondo athlete Ali Akbar Amiri won the first gold medal for Afghanistan at the 2023 Chuncheon Korea G2 Open International Taekwondo Championships.
Amiri, a member of Afghanistan’s national taekwondo team, secured first place in the men’s +87 kg category at the tournament after defeating Nigeria’s Abdoul Issoufou on Friday.
Issoufou was a gold medalist at the 2021 African Taekwondo Championships and a former world taekwondo champion.
Before beating Issoufou, Amiri beat rivals from Canada, Kazakhstan, and South Korea.
Afghanistan National Taekwondo Federation said that Amiri’s remarkable win marked the first-ever gold medal for the country in the G2 Korea Open.
“We congratulate this delightful win to the people of Afghanistan,” the Federation stated.
The G2 Korea Open is a prominent and highly-competitive international tournament. This year, more than 500 athletes from across 60 countries participated in the competition.
