Saudi taekwondo star edged out in historic Olympic women's medal pursuit

PARIS, AUG 8: Donia Abu Taleb narrowly missed out on becoming the first Saudi Arabian woman to win an Olympic Games medal on Wednesday.

Abu Taleb was defeated by Mobina Nematzadeh of Iran in the bronze medal play-off in the -49kg division of the taekwondo competition played out inside Paris' spectacular Grand Palais.

The 27-year-old had won her last 16 clash against Israel's Abishag Semberg before losing her quarter-final against Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand, the gold medallist from the Tokyo Olympics.
She secured a place in the bronze medal play-off by seeing off Morocco's Oumaima El Bouchti 2-0 but the high-ranked Nematzadeh proved too strong.

Earlier this year she upgraded to gold at the Asian Taekwondo Championships.    —AFP