South Korean Cha Dong-min won a taekwondo bronze medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Saturday.

Cha defeated Dmitriy Shokin of Uzbekistan 4-3 for one of two bronzes in the men's 80kg event. After the two finished regulation tied at 3-3, Cha scored the decisive "golden point" in the sudden-death extra period.




This was Cha's second career Olympic medal following his 2008 gold. He was eliminated in the quarterfinals in 2012.

This year, Cha also lost in the quarterfinals, but ended up in the repechage when his quarterfinals opponent, Radik Isaev of Azerbaijan, reached the final.

Cha needed to win two matches to claim bronze. He defeated Ruslan Zhaparov of Kazakhstan 15-8 to set up the match against Shokin.

After going scoreless in the first round, the two traded points, with Shokin taking a 2-1 lead. Then in the last moments, Cha scored two straight points to move out in front.

With 58 seconds left in the third round, Shokin tied the score with a successful punch.

Cha then got the critical point 11 seconds into the decisive period.

All five South Korean taekwondo fighters won a medal in Rio: Kim So-hui in the women's 49kg and Oh Hye-ri in the women's 67kg were the gold medalists, while Kim Tae-hun in the men's 58kg and Lee Dae-hoon in the men's 68kg each won a bronze medal.

By Yonhap News