2011 WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Gyeongju, South Korea, May 2011

The 2011 WTF World Championships saw more than 1,000 athletes compete over 6 days and officials from 149 countries officiate the games.

Korea’s worst performance in history.
The main talking point at the end of this competition though is the worst performance by the host nation Korea, since the establishment of the competition in 1973. Korea’s domination of the sport is legendary however for the first time in the history of the games it was Iran that took the overall’s men’s title, dethroning the Korean team.

The Iran team won a total of three golds, one silver and two bronze medals, compared to the Korean team’s two gold and two silver medals, making the overall medal chart read 1: Iran and 2: Korea.

Korea did however have some consolation in the women’s table, securing first place with one gold medal, two silvers and three bronzes ― the overall performance of the Korean side certainly disappointed compared to their previous efforts.

Two years ago at the world championships in Copenhagen, Korea’s men and women altogether won five golds, two silvers and two bronzes.

One thing this year’s World Championships prove is after years of Korea being dominant in the ring, Taekwondo is now rapidly transforming into an International sport. 

New electronic body protectors:

This championship also saw the new body protector introduced at World level and saw a lot of athletes struggle with the change. Those that have previously relied on speed as opposed to power found that nowadays you have to have both. Especially when attacking the trunk.