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| South Korea's pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun pitches during a game against Thailand at Munhak Baseball Stadium, Monday. / Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
South Korea's baseball team Monday got off to a good start toward the gold, defeating Thailand 15-0 in its first match at the Incheon Asian Games.
But as the host country managed to add only two golds in judo and shooting events in Day 3, China went past it to secure the top perch in the medal standings by sweeping 13 golds that day alone.
Korean baseball off to a winning start
The Korean baseball team thrashed underdog Thailand 15-0, forcing a 5-inning early end to the Group B game at Munhak Baseball Stadium, next to Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center in the port city.
The Koreans earned runs in all innings except for the second ― eight in the top first inning, four in the third and three in the fourth innings.
As the Asiad allows a "win by mercy rule" in which a game ends early if one side has more than a 15-run lead by the fifth inning or more than a 10-run lead before the seventh inning, the match finished after the fifth.
Manager Ryu Joong-il checked his men's performance including bullpen pitchers Yoo Won-sang and Lee Tae-Yang in preparation for the game against Chinese Taipei in two days. They are considered the biggest hurdle for Korea's bid to win a consecutive gold in the sport, following one in the Guangzhou Games.
"Our men played this game in a preparation for the Chinese Taipei game," said Ryu. "Our batters were in good condition and I'm quite satisfied with that."
Silvers from fencing, sepaktakraw
South Korean fencers failed beat their Chinese opponents, ending up with two more silvers.
London Olympic silver medalist fencer Shin A-lam lost to China's Sun Yujie 5-6 after extra time in the women's epee individual at the Goyang Gymnasium, Gyeonggi Province, while Heo Jun suffered a 13-15 loss to Ma Jianfei in the men's individual foil.
"I did my best preparing the match, but I came up short," Shin told reporters. "But, I'll try my best again in the team competition."
Though the country closed the day with just two silvers, South Korea showed its dominance in previous days by sweeping up four golds, three silvers and one bronze in six individual events.
Jung Jin-sun and Lee Ra-jin won gold medals in the men's epee and women's sabre event, Saturday, while Jeon Hee-sook and Gu Bon-gil added two more in the women's foil and men's sabre, Sunday.
The team competition will be held from Tuesday with the women's sabre and the men's epee.
In the sepaktakraw event, South Korea lost in the finals to reigning champ Myanmar 0-2 (19-21, 18-21) at the Bucheon Gymnasium in Gyeonggi Province.
The team, comprised of Kim Young-man, Jeong Won-deok and Yim An-soo, advanced to the final after defeating Laos 2-0 on Sunday, but had to taste defeat for the second straight time following the previous 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games while Myanmar bagged its second consecutive gold.
Swimming icon Park added a bronze
Swimmer Park Tae-hwan added a bronze to his 200m bronze in the 800m (200m x 4) freestyle relay at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center, Monday, a day ahead of his 400m event against China's Sun Yang and Japan's Hagino Kosuke. Sun decided at the last minute not to take part in the relay because of a finger injury that he sustained while reaching for the touch pad in yesterday's 200m event.
Team Japan, with Hagino positioned second, maintained an overwhelming lead to snag gold with a new Asiad record of 7:06.74. Team China came in second with 7:16.51 and Korea third with 7:21.37.
Nam Ki-woong of Korea, who was up first, began in fourth-place but fell to sixth before handing the reins over to Yang June-hyuck, who managed to move back up to fourth place. Jeong Jeong-soo inched into third place, and then Park distanced himself from fourth-placed Singapore's Lim Yongen.
