File image of Aruna Tanwar.© X (Twitter)
India’s Aruna Tanwar suffered a heavy 0-19 defeat to Nurcihan Ekinci of Turkey in a round of 16 contest in women’s K 44-47kg category of the Paris Paralympics on Thursday. Aruna was absolutely no match to her opponent from Turkey who garnered points at will in the five-minute round. Ekinci scored two points from body kick nine times during the contest while the Indian also conceded one penalty point (gam-jeom). K44 category includes athletes who have impairments in one arm above the elbow.
Para taekwondo was introduced during Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. Athletes will compete in five separate weight categories for each gender.
In Para taekwondo, matches are held in a one round contest, lasting up to five minutes.
One key difference with the able-bodied Olympic Games is that kicks to the head and punches are not allowed because not all athletes can block in the same way.
Athletes wear protective equipment and ‘sensor socks’, which determines if a point is scored when hitting their opponent’s torso.
Athletes get two points for a regular kick, three points for a turning kick and four points for a spinning kick.
Fouls like head kicks, grabbing, pushing, kicks below the belt or stepping out of bound result to a gam-jeom, a penalty that gives a point to the opponent.
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