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2012 London Olympics: Houston's Diana Lopez Loses Taekwondo Preliminary

Houston's Diana Lopez entered the 2012 London Olympic Games considered to be a favorite for gold in the under-57kg class of womens taekwondo. Instead, she was knocked out in the preliminaries on Thursday by a mark of 1-0 in sudden death. Two-time world champion Hou Yuzhuo of China beat Lopez to advance to the finals.

The match went seven minutes without a score before Hou landed one front kick for the win. The pair went through regulation scoreless and playing a lot of defense, as shouts of "fight" were heard from the referee at multiple points in the match.

Even after the match, Lopez still had a chance to medal, by earning a bronze if she were to win two matches in the repechage round. However, Lopez lost her first match to Suvi Mikkonen of Finland, 9-4. Lopez won the bronze in 2008, and her brother Steven will compete in the under-70kg division on Friday.

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Images by eflon used in background images under a Creative Commons license. Thank you.