Sergerie settles for historic silver By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

Karine Sergerie reacts after winning the silver medal in taekwondo on Friday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

BEIJING – Karine Sergerie came within a flick of a foot of winning the first gold medal in taekwondo in Canadian Olympic history here Friday.

“It was right there,” said the 23-year-old from Ste. Catherines, Que.

“We both kicked at the same point. But hers went in,” she said of settling for silver against Korean Kyungseon Hwang in the 67-kilogram division.

Even in losing, it was Canada's greatest success story in Olympic taekwondo history. Canada had never won silver before either.

The Korean won the bout 2-1.

Canada's only previous medal in the sport was a bronze from Dominque Bosshard at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Taekwondo is one of the Olympic combat sports where two bronze medals are awarded.

“At the end I think I lacked a little bit of energy,” said Sergerie, who had gone through the full day of competition to make it to the gold-medal match.

“If I squeezed a little more. If I'd made one last kick. But I didn't have the juice.”

She came here as the world champion, the first Canadian ever to hold the title in the sport. She also came here having only lost one major international tournament in the past two years.

And she came here with a comfort level having won the Good Luck Beijing 2008 International Taekwondo Tournament. But that one loss was against the same Korean competitor in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Manchester, England.

Hwang is also a world champion, one weight category higher. In the Olympics, as is the case with women's wrestling, two weight classes are combined to create four divisions instead of eight.