By Lauren Mattera at Santa Cruz in Aruba

WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships winnersNovember 25 - South Korea and China have been crowned men and women's champions, respectively, of the 2012 World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) World Cup Team Championships at the Centro Deportivo here.


Men's favourites South Korea showcased their world-class prominence with a 27-11 victory over 2010 champions Iran, while a nail-biting women's final between China and France needed a third sudden death round before China ran out 12-11 winners, their first win since the competition was launched in 2006.

The men's South Korean team enjoyed a 21-18 semi-final victory over Spain to enable their progression through to the finals, as Iran fended off China before advancing to the last stage.

China's women's team strived to a 17-15 win over Croatia, and one of the women's competitions seeded teams France beat Russia by an impressive 21-9.

Kye Hee Park of South Korea and Zhang Hun of China picked up the most valuable players of the event award.

The tournament, which is the fourth of its kind, drew an impressive 90 male athletes from across Aruba, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Russia, Egypt, Venezuela, Chinese Taipei, Dominican Republic, the United States, Brazil, Uzbekistan and China.

As well as an additional 69 female athletes from across Korea, China, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Croatia, Russia, Colombia, Chinese Taipei and the United States of America.

WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships winners KoreaSouth Korea beat Iran 27-11 to claim the men's 2012 WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships title

During the three-day event, teams were divided into four male and three female groups of which the two top teams from each group went through to the single-elimination based quarter-finals.

Each stage featured two rounds of five minutes with the second round being a tag team match, allowing athletes to be replaced as long as a minimum of three attacks had been achieved.

Each team must have had five athletes and one substitute to take part, in which Uzbekistan received a 10 point deduction after failing to meet this requirement.

The competition was first staged in Bangkok, where South Korea won both the men's and women's title.

This was followed by the 2009 WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, in which Turkey's men's team were victorious and Iran claimed the 2010 men's title in Urumqi, China.

In the women's table, China have knocked Korea off the top spot for the first time, as the South Korean's have dominated with a successful 2006, 2009, and 2010 Championships.

The 2013 World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships is due to take place in Dakar, Senegal.

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