Oceania Taekwondo Qualifying Tournament 2024: Australia secure four Paris Olympic quotas
Stacey Hymer, Saffron Tambyrajah, Leon Sejranovic and Bailey Lewis obtained the quotas by winning the gold medals in their respective categories in Honiara.
Stacey Hymer (women’s 57kg), Saffron Tambyrajah (women’s 49kg), Leon Sejranovic (men’s 80kg) and Bailey Lewis (men’s 58kg) secured four Paris 2024 Olympic quotas for Australia from the Oceania Taekwondo Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Honiara, the Solomon Islands, on Saturday.
World Taekwondo manages allocation of quotas from the continental events, with confirmation of the which quotas Australia will receive expected in the coming weeks.
The meet was the last chance for taekwondo athletes from the Oceania region to obtain quotas for the Paris 2024 Olympics, which will be held in July-August later this year.
With only the highest placed athlete in each of the eight weight classes at the Oceania Qualification Tournament obtaining the Olympic quotas, the four Australian participants had to win gold medals in their respective divisions to make the cut. Only four Australians competed at the Honiara meet.
However, as National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Stacey Hymer, who also represented Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, won the women’s 57kg division, beating Tongan youngster Angel Sitapa 2-0 in the final. Saffron Tambyrajah bested Vanuatu’s Grace Bebe by a similar margin in the women’s 49kg gold medal match.
In the men’s categories, Bailey Lewis won the men’s 58kg gold medal at the expense of home favourite Isaac Myrie while Leon Sejranovic took the men’s 80kg crown after a RSC (referee stopped contest) win over Samoan opponent Ryan Eteuati in the final.
With the four wins, Australia also filled up the maximum possible quotas in taekwondo at the Paris 2024 Olympics. According to the rules, an NOC may qualify a maximum of two male and two female athletes for Paris 2024 with a maximum of one athlete per weight category.
Australia have won two Olympic medals - one gold and one silver - in taekwondo till date.