Flash: Sarmiento and Saei qualify for final in Men's -80kg taekwondo

(BEIJING, August 22) -- Italian fighter Mauro Sarmiento and Iranian veteran Hadi Saei progressed to the final in the Men's –80kg weight division today after they won their semifinals in the Olympic taekwondo competition.

Sarmiento scraped through by narrowly defeating Aaron Cook of Great Britain with a close score of 6-5, while Saei secured a place in the final by defeating Rashad Ahmadov of Azerbaijan 4-1 in the other semifinal.

The final will be held today at 8:15 p.m. local time (UTC/GMT +8).