Paralympic taekwondo: Aruna loses in quarterfinals
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India's Aruna Tanwar lost in the quarterfinals of the women's K44-49kg taekwondo competition at the Tokyo Paralympics, losing to Peru's Leonor Espinoza Carranza 84-21 on Thursday. She will now go through the repechage round to get back into the medal contention.
Aruna, who had reached the quarterfinals with a 29-9 win against Danijela Jovanovic of Serbia, was overwhelmed by the Peruvian. Leonor won the first round 26-2 by launching a flurry of kicks to her rival's body, that fetched her two points every time.
Aruna, the 21-year-old from Bhiwani in Haryana, was born with only three fingers in each hands and her arms are not fully developed, took up taekwondo at age eight and competed in able-bodied events until 2017 when she was forced to switch to para-taekwondo as she was deemed ineligible to continue due to her impairment.
the 21-year-old tried to fight back in the second round but Leonor, who is ranked 4th in the world in her category while Aruna is 12th, was too strong and did not give the Indian many chances to attack. She won the second round 30-10 and won the next one 28-9 to seal a comprehensive victory.
Aruna will not take on Royala Fataliyeva of Azerbaijan in the repechage round later in the evening.
