Taekwondo practitioner Lee Da-bin ends Olympic debut with silver medal

Korea's Lee Da-bin congratulates Serbia's Milica Mandic after the women's +67 Taekwondo finals. [YONHAP]

Lee Da-bin will leave her first-ever Olympics with a silver medal in hand.

The gold medal went to Serbia's Milica Mandic, who took a 10-7 victory over Lee to win the women's +67kg Taekwondo competition at Makuhari Messe Event Hall, western Chiba, on Tuesday evening.

Mandic established a big early lead in the first round, landing a kick each to Lee's head and torso to go up 5-0. Lee rallied well in the second round, landing a torso kick of her own and closing the gap to 6-3.

Lee came within a hairsbreadth of turning the tide in the third round, landing a punch and a kick to Mandic's torso to tie it up 6-6 with 40 seconds to go, but Mandic almost immediately responded in kind to restore her three-point lead and eventually secured her victory.

Earlier in the day, Lee made national news by landing a buzzer beater of a kick onto her opponent in the very final second of her semifinal match for a thrilling 25-24 comeback win. That she pulled it off against Great Britain's Bianca Walkden, ranked No.1 in the world in the +67kg category, had added to the drama.

With all Taekwondo events now completed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Lee was the only Korean Taekwondo athlete to make it to a gold medal match.

BY JEON YOUNG-JAE [jeon.youngjae@joongang.co.kr]