Yeom Hyo-Seob (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 염효섭) is a South Korean

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

practitioner. He won the gold medal in the bantamweight division (-63 kg) at the

2009 World Taekwondo Championships The 2009 World Taekwondo Championships are the 19th edition of the World Taekwondo Championships, and were held at Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark from October 14 to October 18, 2009.Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Controversial final

At the 2009 World Championship, Yeom won the very controversial gold medal fight against

Reza Naderian Reza Naderian ( fa, رضا نادریان, born January 29, 1989, in Isfahan, Iran) is an Iranian Taekwondo athlete who competed in the Men's 58 kg at the 2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

following a highly disputed 4–2 final score. Yeom was trailing 2-1 midway through the second round when the judge gave three points to Yeom for a kick to the face that did not connect. Iran requested a video replay but the referee refused. Then in the third round, with Yeom ahead by a point, the referee accepted team Korea's request for a video replay and took away a point from the Iranian fighter. Yeom kept clinching the Iranian opponent using fake attacks until the end of the third round, and even ran out on the mat when 5 seconds are left to the end of the match. After the match, many South Korean media criticized about the controversial judgement and Yeom's unsportsmanlike ending.

References

Living people South Korean male taekwondo practitioners Year of birth missing (living people) World Taekwondo Championships medalists 21st-century South Korean people {{SouthKorea-taekwondo-bio-stub