LONDON: Thailand's Panipak Wongpattanakit continued her good run this year by winning her second World Grand Prix title on Sunday.
Panipak comfortably beat Tijana Bogdanovic of Serbia 44-6 in the women's 49kg final at the World Grand Prix Series 3.
It is the fourth title this year for the 20-year-old who also triumphed at the World Grand Prix Series 1 in Moscow, World University Games in Taiwan and SEA Games in Malaysia.
"I am happy to have won the title," she said after the London win.
"I wanted to give my all as a Thai national athlete as a tribute to King Rama IX [King Bhumibol Adulyadej. My next tournament is the World Grand Prix Finals in Ivory Coast in December and I will do my best to win the title."
King Bhumibol passed away last year and Thailand will bid its final farewell to the beloved monarch in a royal cremation ceremony on Thursday.
Nicknamed Tennis, Panipak won bronze at the 2016 Olympics and is seen as one of Thailand's best gold medal hopes at the next Games.
Sunday's women's 49kg showdown pitted Panipak, silver medallist at the 2017 World Championships, against Bogdanovic, runner-up at the Rio Olympics.
Panipak started the match strongly, taking a 2-0 lead with a hook kick and following it up with an over-the-shoulder head shot to go 5-0 up.
Another head shot, followed by a punch, a push kick and another punch gave her a 14-0 lead at the end of the first round.
The Thai continued her dominance in the second round which saw her lead 23-2.
In the third round, Panipak proved much too strong for the Serb, and after a flurry of head kicks, punches and kicks to the trunk protector, the young Thai won the match 44-6. bangkok post/agencies
