Jin Shoots for Gold; Park Adds Silver
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
Shooter Jin Jong-oh won a gold medal in the men's 50-meter pistol Tuesday at the Beijing Olympics.
Jin held off a late charge by North Korean marksman Kim Jong-su to win by 0.2 points in the final round at Shooting Range Hall.
The win gave South Korea its fifth gold of the Summer Games.
Jin, who will turn 29 next month, won an Olympic title in his fourth attempt. In his previous attempts, he claimed second in the 50-meter pistol and fourth in the 10-meter air pistol at the 2004 Athens Olympics and earned a silver in the 10-meter air pistol Saturday in Beijing.
The gold medal also gave South Korea its first Olympic title in shooting since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, where Yeo Kab-soon took the gold in the women's 10-meter air rifle and Lee Eun-chul won the men's 50-meter rifle prone.
Park Tae-hwan swam to a silver medal in the men's 200-meter freestyle as record-chasing Michael Phelps of the United States captured his third gold in Beijing.
In what was billed as the ``race for second,'' Park, the 400-meter freestyle gold medallist, touched the pad in 1 minute, 44.85 seconds, setting a new Asian record and improving the time of 1:45.99 he swam in the semifinals. Phelps, however, set his second individual world record of these Olympics to go with a world record on a relay team.