Colleyville’s Lambdin falls in first round of Olympic Taekwondo
Stephen Lambdin received his first Olympic taekwondo uniform late Friday night, and tweeted out a picture to celebrate.
Less than 12 hours later, the Colleyville native had to hang up that uniform after falling in the first round of the men’s over-80 kg (176 pounds) division. Lambdin, 28, was defeated by Brazil’s Maicon de Andrade Siqueira 9-7 in a three-round bout that went down to the final seconds Saturday.
“He went for the Hail Mary and got away with it,” Lambdin said. “It was a hard loss, but that’s part of the love-hate relationship with this sport.”
It’s the equivalent of the Eli Manning to David Tyree pass in the Super Bowl.
Colleyville’s Stephen Lambdin on his first-round loss
The Heritage High graduate started the match behind 1-0 after Siqueira landed a kick to his body in the six-minute first round. Lambdin responded in the second round with a 1-point defensive kick to tie the score heading into the final round.
A wild third round featured 14 total points, six for Lambdin and eight for his Brazilian opponent. Six of those points came in the final six seconds.
Lambdin opened the final round with a 4- and a 1-point kick in the first 30 seconds, jumping ahead 6-4 after also absorbing two 1-point kicks from Siqueira. With six seconds to go, Siqueira landed a 3-point kick to Lambdin’s head to take a 7-6 lead. The two exchanged a series of blows in the final few seconds, with Siqueira earning two more points and Lambdin just one.
“You can play out that exact same scenario, and 99 times out of 100 that wouldn’t happen again,” Lambdin said. “It’s the equivalent of the Eli Manning to David Tyree pass in the Super Bowl.”
Siqueira fell 6-1 in the following round to Issoufou Alfaga Abdoulrazak of Niger, costing Lambdin a chance to compete for the bronze medal through repechage — a second-chance opportunity for fighters who lose to one of the two finalists.
Radik Isaev of Azerbaijan defeated Abdoulrazak 6-2 to win the gold medal. Siqueira and Cha Dong-min of South Korea each took home a bronze medal through repechage.
This story was originally published August 20, 2016 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Colleyville’s Lambdin falls in first round of Olympic Taekwondo."