Danielle Pelham is Taekwondo World Champion

Women's bantamweight Danielle Pelham (Bothell, Wash.) won the gold medal Friday at the WTF World Taekwondo Championships in Copenhagen, defeating Thailand's Sarita Phongsri in the finals, 5-4. Pulling off the equivalent of a basketball shot at the buzzer, Pelham scored the decisive kick as time ran out in the third and final round then gave a celebratory fist pump as punctuation.

Pelham scored the only point of the opening round with a kick to the body, but the action picked up in the second round. The first big blow was a three-point head shot by Pelham to put her up 4-0, but Phongsri quickly countered with a head shot of her own to make it 4-3. Later in the round Pelham picked up her second warning from the center referee which gave a point to Phongsri to tie the match 4-4 heading into the third round. No points were scored in the final period until Pelham's gold-medal kick as time expired (watch the video HERE).

Competing in her first world championships, Pelham, 24, bested a field of 53 fighters. She won her opening match of the day over Egypt's Mariem Ahmed by knockout (she was leading 7-0 at the time), and then posted a 12-4 win over the Ivory Coast's Banassa Diomande. Pelham advanced to the quarterfinals by scoring a punch in overtime against Senegal's Faniang Dieye, and then reached the medal round with a 7-6 victory over Croatia's Jelena Ivancic.

She qualified for the gold-medal match with a 6-5 win over Guatemala's Euda Carias Morales in the semifinals. Morales took home a bronze medal as did Korea's Eun-Kyung Kwon.

The victory by Pelham gives the U.S. a total of two gold medals in the first three days. Steven Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas) won the men's welterweight gold medal on Wednesday, becoming the first person ever to win five world titles. In the team standings after three days, the U.S. women sit in fourth place and the U.S. men are in fifth.

In other action on Friday, men's featherweight Steven Lin (Chatham, N.J.), 22, reached the quarterfinal round before being eliminated. He started his day with a superiority win in overtime over Israel's Tom Hovav and advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-5 victory over the Dominican Republic's Jhohanny Bartermi. An overtime victory against Brazil's Diogo Silva put Lin into the quarterfinals and one win away from a medal, but he dropped a 6-3 decision to Iran's Mohammad Bagheri Motamed to end his run.

Motamed would go on to win the featherweight gold medal over Mexico's Idulio Islas, while the bronze medals went to Senegal's Balla Dieye and Turkey's Servet Tazegul.

Men's bantamweight Brian Gallagher (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), 23, registered a 7-4 opening match win over Germany's Boris Winkler, but then lost in the round of 32 to Afghanistan's Ziaullah Amal 6-0. Korea's Hyo-Seob Yeom won the gold medal with Iran's Reza Naderian taking the silver medal. Spain's Javier Marron Jimenez and Turkey's Cem Ulugnuyan won the bronze medals.

The world championships continue through Sunday with the remaining schedule for U.S. fighters listed below:

Saturday, October 17
Men's under 54 kg - Luis Reyes (Chatsworth, Calif.)
Men's under 87 kg - Antony Graf (Miami, Fla.)
Women's under 46 kg - Talina Le (Woodinville, Wash.)
Women's under 73 kg - Dalia Avivi (Plantation, Fla.)

Sunday, October 18
Men's under 74 kg - Mark Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas)
Women's under 62 kg - Stephanie Beckel (Miami, Fla.)
Women's over 73 kg - Lauren Cahoon (Miami, Fla.)

VIEW COMPLETE DRAW

###