Trương Thị Kim Tuyền competes in the 31st SEA Games in May. She is one of three Vietnamese representatives at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico. VNA/VNS Photo
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam's Trương Thị Kim Tuyền will fight at the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships, which is ongoing in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Tuyền, who competes in the women's 49kg class, gets a bye in the first round and will meet the winner of the match between Al Halwani Sarah of Italy and Garcia Laura from Colombia on November 16.
The 2017 world championship silver medalist is expected to achieve a high result in this year's tournament. However, she will face tough rivals including No. 4 seed Dincel Merve or Turkey and No. 1 Cerezo Iglesias Fatima from Spain on the way to the final.
SEA Games champion Tuyền recently took part in the Grand Prix in Paris and Manchester City but was not at her peak at that time.
The Tokyo Olympian is one of three Vietnamese at the Guadalajara event.
Her teammate Phạm Ngọc Châm competed in the women's 57kg class on November 14 but she was disqualified.
The winner of the category was Zhongshi Luo of China who outpointed Chia-ling Lo of Chinese Taipei in the final match.
The last Vietnamese is Nguyễn Trần Ánh Ngân in the women's 73kg pool. She will face No. 11 seed Farouk Maisoun of Egypt in the first round on November 19 at the Centro Acuatico CODE Metropolitano.
This year's tournament is the 25th edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, organised during November 13-20.
It was at first scheduled to be held in Cancún, Mexico. This was the second time since 2013, that Mexico has held the event.
Guadalajara will be the first World Taekwondo Championships since the COVID-19 global pandemic, following the Manchester Worlds in 2019.
More than 775 athletes and 570 officials from 120 member nations, as well as those from the World Taekwondo Refugee Team, take part in the competition.
Fighters compete in eight weight categories each in men's and women's disciplines.
Results at the world event, which is applying new regulations and rules, will be counted for athletes who are seeking berths at the Paris Olympics in 2024. — VNS
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