South Korea's Jang Ji-won has grabbed the gold medal at the Athens Olympics by beating Nia Abdallah of the United States 2-1 in the women's under-57kg taekwondo final.

Jang, the 2001 world champion, scored a one-point kick in the first two-minute round before widening the lead to 4-0 in the second and win the match at 4-1 after three rounds.

Her compatriot and gold-medal hope Song Myeong-Seob lost in the men's under-68 featherweight semi-finals, but fought back through the consolation round to win the bronze.

Jang's win marks the first gold for South Korea at the Athens Olympics in its national sport taekwondo. The event debuted at the 2000 Sydney Games.

In boxing, Cho Seok-hwan added a bronze to the nation's Olympic medal tally in the featherweight(57 kilogram) semifinal event Friday.

Cho, the bronze medalist at last year's World Championship, struggled against Russia's Alexei Tichtchenko throughout the four rounds to lose 45 to 25, failing to reach the finals.

In the 69 kilogram event, Kim Jeong-ju brought another bronze medal.

In women's handball, South Korea kept its gold medal hope alive after edging out France 32-31 in a cliffhanger semifinal, sealing a silver medal.

South Korea is to face off the winner of the Denmark-Ukraine game in the final set for Sunday afternoon.

South Korea failed to join the top four in the 2000 Sydney Games after having won four medals in a row from the 1984 Los Angeles Games to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.