Leon Sejranovic has fought bravely in his repechage defeat in the men’s -80kg Taekwondo, going down to Edi Hrnic of Denmark.
Under the stunning backdrop of the Grand Palais, Leon took it up to his opponent through a series of fast flurries of kicks and punches.
His opponent was able to match each strike however, scoring vital points early in the contest to take an early lead.
A spin kick to the body by Leon closed the gap to one point deep in the first round, before a series of blows by the Danish competitor took the opening round 8-5.
After a fast start by Leon in the second, he was unable to keep up with the flurry of attacks by Hrnic, with the Dane taking the round by reaching 12 points, and took the bout 2-0.
Leon said he left everything out on the mat in an attempt to win through to the bronze medal contest.
"I did everything I could out there and tried to score everything I could, but it just didn't go my way," he said. "My opponent's a great fighter."
"It's not my day today, but I'll be back stronger."
Earlier in the day, Leon fought world number six Firas Katoussi (TUN), falling 2-0 to his opponent.
Katoussi was fast from the get go, pressuring Leon into defence early with the Tunisian’s height advantage on display through his high and quick kicks.
In the opening round, Leon pushed hard to attack the body of his opponent and went in hard several times in attempting to hit Katoussi in the head to land maximum points, but was unable to land any of his attacks.
The 22-year-old was then attacked through a serious of hits by the Tunisian, losing 4-0 in round one.
It was more of the same in the second round, with Katoussi quick into the attack against the Victorian, adding to his score early on.
A flurry of attempted hits from Leon in the second round were countered well by Katoussi, with the Tunisian able to land a crucial head kick and further body blows to secure the round with a 7-1 score and progress to the next round.
A disappointed Leon said he simply wasn’t able to match his opponent’s skill.
“It's hard when you go down early against someone that tall,” he said.
“When you go down one or two points it makes it very hard to close the distance and get in.
“The first round was really close the whole way through, the second round with 20 or 30 seconds left I'm down by two points.
“You just have to take risks to try and get in close, to close the distance and score, and then doing that, you run the risk of dropping more shots to the body, which is what happened.
“So, yeah, not the result we wanted.”
Despite not reaching the medal rounds, Leon said he was boosted on the mat by the contingent of vocal Aussie fans in the crowd and said it had made him hungrier to push for 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It means a lot to have people support you like that and want the best for you,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the result for them today.”
"I've been visualising it for the last two years, being at the Olympic Games and medalling, so it sucks for it not to happen.
"But we'll make it happen in another city, another year."
This article was originally written for The Australian Olympic Team. You can read the published version here
Kommentare