Rio 2016: Korea bags first taekwondo gold
South Korea’s Kim So-hui, left, lands a kick on Serbia’s Tijana Bogdanovic in the women’s 49 kg taekwondo gold medal bout at the 2016 Summer Olympics at Carioca Arena 3 in Rio, Wednesday. Kim clinched the gold after defeating Bogdanovic 7-6. / Yonhap
Kim So-hui beats Serbia’s Bogdanovic 7-6
By Baek Byung-yeul
Kim So-hui clinched South Korea’s first taekwondo gold on day 12 of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, ending the nation’s medal drought that lasted for four straight days.
With taekwondo’s two lightest weight classes being contested Wednesday, Kim won gold in the women’s 49 kg category while Kim Tae-hun won bronze in the men’s 58 kg category.
During her first Olympic bout at Carioca Arena 3 in Rio’s Barra Olympic Park, the 22-year-old Kim beat Serbia’s Tijana Bogdanovic 7-6.
The gold medal bout turned out to be tougher than expected for Kim as the 18-year-old Serbian advanced to the final after defeating defending champ Wu Jingyu of China 17-7 in the quarterfinals.
Facing Bogdanovic, Kim dominated at the beginning, winning the first round 2-1. Though Kim had a height disadvantage compared to Bogdanovic, she was more accurate with her legs. With her superb footwork, Kim also did well in the following round as she landed a kick to the Serbian’s head to end the round with a score of 5-2.
Bogdanovic chased hard in the third and final round. The two exchanged kicks desperately until the end, but Kim managed to maintain a lead to win the game by a single point.
Kim said afterwards that she had “prayed to become a champion” and gave special thanks to her family and her country for their support.
In the men’s 58 kg class, Kim Tae-hoon was stunned by Tawin Hanprab of Thailand 12-10 in the round of 16, but reached the repechage stage as Hanprab reached the final.
Kim, who defeated Safwan Khalil of Australia 4-0 in the repechage match, won against Carlos Ruben Navarro Valdez of Mexico by 7-5 in the bronze medal bout.
Korea also won a bronze medal in badminton after Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan defeated China’s Tan Yuanting and Yu Yang 21-8, 21-17 in the women’s doubles ― the nation’s first medal from badminton in Rio.
Korea has won at least one medal in badminton since the sport made its debut as an official event in the 1992 Games.
Four other doubles pairs ― two in men’s, one in women’s and one in mixed doubles ― lost in the quarterfinals. Two singles players, Sung Ji-hyun for women and Son Wan-ho for men, only reached as far as the quarterfinals.
South Korean female golfers got off to a good start on the opening day of women’s golf.
Park In-bee and Kim Sei-young finished the first round at five-under 66 to place one stroke behind the leader Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand.
Chun In-gee was tied for 19th at one-under and Yang Hee-young is tied for 39th at two-over.
In table tennis, South Korea remained medalless for the first time since the sport started being contested in the 1988 Olympics, losing their last chance to win a medal Wednesday.
In a bronze medal match against Germany, the South Korean men’s team lost 3-1.
South Korea’s Jeoung Young-sik was the only one who took a win in the first singles match over Bastian Steger of Germany but Joo Sae-hyuk lost to Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the next singles and Jeoung partnered with Lee Sang-su lost to Steger and Timo Boll in the doubles. Boll then won over Joo in the singles to win the bronze.
South Korea also fell short of expectations in badminton. Son Wan-ho, the last South Korean in the singles event, lost to world’s second-best Chen Long of China 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
With one gold and one bronze on the 12th day, South Korea retained its 11th rank in the gold medal tally with seven gold, three silver and six bronze medals. The United States has been leading the standings with 30 gold, 32 silver and 31 bronze, followed by the U.K. with 19 gold, 19 silver and 12 bronze, and China with 19 gold, 15 silver and 20 bronze.