Simone Alessio It rises on the first step of the podium on the final day of the Ws Grand Prix Challenge of Taekwondo of Charlotte. The Calabrian born in 2000, Olympic bronze at the Paris 2024 games in -80 kg, gold at the World Cup on two occasions first in the -74 kg and then in the -80 kg and with already three first places on the bulletin board at the Grand Prix Series, has conquered the victory over the square of the United States in the new weight category of +80 kg, also guaranteeing direct access to the Grand Prix Series in Rome 2026.
His journey began in the thirty-second finals, where he passed the Canadian Mamadou Thiam 2-0 (16-13/16-4). At the sixteenths, then, he rejected the assault of the Mexican Carlos Sansores with a double 5-5 and 11-10. In the eighth, therefore, he accelerated against the Brazilian Pedro Arthur Alves by closing 11-7 and 13-1. In the quarterfinals he checked the Belarusian Artsiom Plonis twice 4-3.
In the penultimate act he gave a show against the Spaniard Ivan Garcia imposing himself with the score of 7-5 and 14-2. Finally, in the meeting valid for the title, he completed his masterpiece by annihilating the vice Olympic champion of the maximum weights or the British Caden Cunningham, forced to raise white flag for 7-4 5-5 (the second round was assigned to the blue giant for technical superiority).
“I am certainly very satisfied with the performance, apart from some small difficulties in some fight. But I am happy because it was a world -class eventI qualified in Rome – I didn’t think there were many doubts, but now we have eliminated them all – and nothing, I am really very happy with the performance, because I feel I have fought well. I have not lost even a round in six meetings, from this morning until the final, so surely the performance was almost better than normal. Once I won it fighting well, this satisfies me “, the words of the tricolor champion at the end of the test.