Fencers prove dominance once again
Korean female fencers show off their gold medals during an award ceremony at the Goyang Gymnasium, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday, after they defeated their Chinese opponents in the final of the women's team sabre fencing. From left are Hwang Seon-a, Lee Ra-jin, Yoon Ji-su and Kim Ji-yeon. / Yonhap
Male judokas add gold, while swimmer Park settles for bronze
By Kwon Ji-youn
Both the men’s and women’s South Korean fencing teams claimed gold apiece at the Incheon Asian Games, Tuesday, proving once again how dominant the country is in the sport.
The women’s sabre team of Kim Ji-yeon, Yoon Ji-su and Lee Ra-jin went first to beat China 45-41 at the Goyang Gymnasium, giving South Korea its fifth fencing gold in four days.
Though China began fiercely with a 20-14 lead, Team Korea regrouped to make the score 30-28. The two teams continued a tight race, with the score at 41-41 when Kim stepped in to cap the game with four added points.
The men’s epee team matched the women fencers’ victory with a win soon after in the team final against Japan.
Jung Jin-sun, Park Kyoung-doo, Park Sang-young and Kweon Young-jun beat Japanese fencers 25-21 for South Korea’s third consecutive Asiad gold in the team event. South Korea is the only country that has won three straight Asiad golds in the men’s team epee since 1974. This was Jung’s second gold at the Asian Games.
South Korean judokas top podium
South Korean judokas topped the podium in the men’s team event for a fifth judo gold at the Asian Games.
At the Dowon Gymnasium in western Incheon, Kim Jae-bum, Kim Sung-min, Bang Gui-man, Choi Gwang-hyeon and Lee Kyu-won defeated Team Kazakhstan 4-1 in the final, making Kim Jae-bum the country’s first two-time gold medalist in judo. Kim snatched gold in the men’s 81kg event on Sunday.
Uzbekistan and Japan took home bronzes in the team event.
Yet another bronze for Park
Swimmer Park Tae-hwan failed once again in his bid for gold at this year’s Games, and settled for bronze in the 400m freestyle at the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center.
The 2008 Olympic champion began in third place, and seemed to move to second after the 200m mark, but again yielded to Japan’s Hagino Kosuke for a third-place finish. Sun took the gold in 3:43.23, while Hagino bagged silver in 3:44.48. This marked Sun’s first gold medal at the Incheon Games, and Hagino’s first silver. Hagino has already bagged three golds in the 200m freestyle, the 200m individual medley and the 800m freestyle relay.
Sharpshooters bag silver
The South Korean shooting team claimed silver in the men’s 10m air rifle team event at the Ongnyeon International Shooting Range, Tuesday, 18.8 points behind China.
Shooters Kim Hyeon-jun, Kim Sang-do and Han Jin-seop shot 1,867.6 points, just 4.6 points ahead of India, which settled for bronze.
Kim Sang-do was the highest Korean scorer with 626.1, finishing in the top eight, and Kim Hyeon-jun followed with an eighth-place finish, which qualifies them for the individual competition. Han, a triple gold medalist at the 2010 Asiad, finished a disappointing 17th.
Gymnasts write history
South Korean gymnasts also added bronze medals in the men’s and women’s individual all-around finals.
Gymnast Lee Sang-wook scored a bronze in the men’s individual all-around final, Tuesday, with 87.200 points in the floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. This marks South Korea’s first Asiad medal in the men’s individual all-around since the 2002 Busan Games.
Yuya Kamoto and Masayoshi Yamamoto took gold and silver, with 87.950 points and 87.500 points, respectively. South Korea’s Park Min-soo, who had been regarded as a strong contender, sustained an injury in his right bicep, and finished 10th with 82.300.
Yun Na-rae gave South Korea its first medal in the individual all-around since it first entered the Asian Games in 1974 with 55.000 points.
Gold in equestrian
South Korean rider Hwang Young-shik added a gold medal to his collection in the individual freestyle dressage event, with a combined score of 153.286 points.
Hwang, who had contributed to a podium-top finish in the team dressage event on Sept. 20, out-rode compatriot Kim Dong-seon, who won the silver with 150.699, to claim his second gold at the Incheon Asian Games. India’s Larasati Iris Rischka Gading finished third with 74.075 points. Hwang has become the only South Korean rider to win two back-to-back Asiad golds in dressage events ― he won two dressage titles at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.