On a night of contrasting fortunes for Turkey, Nur Tatar had earlier been defeated by Taiwan's Chuang Chia Chia in a under 67kg contest that was every bit as dour and defensive as the men's one was energetic and pulsating.

In fact, it has been evident throughout the first three days of action here that the sport has become more about precision than explosion in this era of electronic scoring and, given this, it was great to see a final that was essentially a no-holds-barred free-for-all from start to finish.

Tazegul, the four-time European and 2011 world champion who followed an Olympic bronze at Beijing 2008 with gold at London 2012, has long acquired a reputation for exciting, aggressive play.

With a penchant for spinning and flying kicks, he is many ways a throwback to an age gone by, but the effectiveness of his strategy was shown in his semi-final as he scored a succession of head-shots to win against South Korean opponent Shin Dong-yun.

In the other half the draw, Russia's under 58kg London 2012 bronze medallist Denisenko finally broke the trend of home fighters exiting at the semi-final stage, but only just, requiring three late points to defeat Spain's Jose Antonio Rosillo Atencia.

As the noise-levels here grew, and chants of "RUS-I-YA" echoed around the arena to revive memories of partisan home support during last year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, the crowd had caught a sniff of gold, and seemed poised to give their man a greater chance against the strongest of opponents.

Despite some concerns, neither man tempered their favoured attacking styles in an spellbinding first round which saw Tazegul score two head-kicks to edge clear before Denisenko came back with one of his own.

The Russian continued to fight well, but with an air of imperious confidence the Turk always stayed slightly ahead, and, despite some thinking his opponent had landed with a last second face-shot, Tazegul remaining three points ahead to triumph 16-13.

He sportingly embracing his rival afterwards following a match which had done much to show all that is good about this sport. 

On the other hand, the women's contest was a thoroughly modern day affair, with both finalists seemingly reluctant to advance forward and attack.

It took almost four minutes for the first scoring hit to be registered as Taiwan's Chuang, the current Asian champion who won a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championships in Puebla, landed with a right foot to the body.

Deep into the third Tatar still opted to hold her ground rather than throw caution to the win and, in the final moments, Chuang finally landed with a three-pointer and another single shot to make her deserved victory certain.

It was one for the purists rather than the casual fan, but it continues the huge Asian success evident here this week, with five of the six gold medals won so far having gone to athletes from the world's largest continent.

Tomorrow is due to see three more sets of medals up for grabs, in the men's under 54kg and women's under 53 and over 73kg divisions, with two more chances for Russia after Stanislav Denisov and home-town heavyweight hero Olga Ivanova each made it through to the semi-finals.

Related stories
May 2015: Ha has the last laugh by fighting back to claim shock world taekwondo title
May 2015: Teenage kicks at World Taekwondo Championships as Iranian and Thai youngsters triumph
May 2015: World Taekwondo Championships opens with historic collaboration between rival organisations