Taekwondo: World champion defeated in semis

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Sydney: World champion Hadi Saeibonehkohal of Iran suffered a shock defeat in the semi-finals of the men's 68 kg Olympic taekwondo competition on Thursday.

South Korean Sin Joon-Sik, 20, out-pointed, outfought and outwitted his more experienced opponent to score a 5-3 victory and progress to the final later in the day.

The bout was always finely balanced until the third round when Sin twice opened up a two point margin. Both times Saeibonehkohal reduced the deficit to one but with time running out he could not get close enough to the nimble Korean to score.

The final will be a youthful affair after Sin was joined by the 21-year-old American, Steven Lopez.

He defeated the vastly more experienced German, Aziz Acharki 2-0 to book a place in the gold medal fight. Aziz was world champion back in 1995, but Lopez had the beating of him and held on despite a late flurry from the German.

Controversy reigned in the first of the bouts in the women's 57 kg which was billed as the match-up between the two big favourites, 1995 world champion, Hamide Bikcin of Turkey against the 1997 world champion, Jung Jae-eun of South Korea.

Jung just edged the contest 3-2 but angry Turkish fans claimed the refereeing had been biased.