I Did It! Kim Ha-yoon rose to the top with a gold medal at the World Championships...1st and 3rd place overall in individual competition
Jun 20, 2025
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Kim Ha-yoon won the gold medal by beating Japan's Arai Mao in the women's 78kg or higher final at the 2025 International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on the 20th (Korea time). Kim Ha-yoon exchanged one map each with a passive play after a fierce war of nerves with Arai in the final. Kim Ha-yoon, who has been actively attacking since then, got a second map for foul play by his opponent, and later got another map for 41 seconds in extra time.
Kim Ha-yoon, who won the bronze medal at the world championships last year, has been on the podium for the second consecutive year. It is the first time that a Korean female judoka has won the gold medal in the world championships since 1991 when Moon Ji-yoon won the gold medal at the Barcelona Games in Spain. Kim Ha-yoon became the only Korean judo team to win the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, and also stood at the Olympic Stadium with a bronze medal at the World Championship and a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics last year. Kim Ha-yoon, who has been in poor pace due to knee injuries and poor condition since the Olympics, advanced to the finals by winning a showdown with Lee Hyun-ji, her junior in the national team, and once again showed that she is the best in the world.
Lee Hyun-ji also won a bronze medal on the day. Lee Hyun-ji, who advanced to the loser bronze medal match after losing her showdown with Kim Ha-yoon, succeeded in harvesting a meaningful bronze medal by winning a round of waist turns against world No. 9 Marit Camps of the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Kim Min-jong (Yangpyeong County Office) of the highest weight in men's 100kg class won the bronze medal. Kim Min-jong, who won the world championship and the silver medal at the Paris Olympics last year, failed to advance to the finals after losing one game to Georgia's Guram Tousishvili in the semifinals. However, he won a valuable bronze medal in the bronze medal match by winning half of the match against Tamelan Vasayev (an individual neutral player from Russia) after an extended battle.
The Korean judo team finished with a total of one gold, three bronze, and sixth overall in the individual event. He won a total of four medals, including Lee Joon-hwan (Pohang City Hall) in the men's and women's weight class.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
