The first medals in taekwondo were handed out on Sunday, and Italy's Vito Dell'Aquila and Thailand's Panipak Wongpattanakit took the top steps on the podium.
Dell'Aquila entered the men's -58kg gold medal match with Turkey's Mohamed Khalil Jendoubi as the no. 2 seed, but he fould himself in a deficit early - Jendoubi finished the first round with a 5-2 lead. Dell'Aquila got himself back into it, though, winning Round 2 by a score of 6-4 and dominating Round 3, 8-3.
Dell'Aquila doubled up Jendoubi in the final two rounds, 14-7, en route to the gold medal in his first Olympic appearance. Jendoubi won silver and Korea's Jang Jun won bronze in the men's -58kg.
In the women's -49kg, it was Wongpattanakit who got the better of her Spanish opponent Adriana Cerezo Iglesias, though the bout came down to the wire. Wongpattanakit carried a comfortable lead into the third round, but her lead was trimmed to just one, 11-10, by the end of the bout. Wongpattanakit won gold, Iglesias earned silver and Serbia's Tijana Bogdanovic won bronze.
