Sweeping up six golds, Korea sits on top
An Chang-rim gestures after defeating Dmytro Kanivets of Ukraine in the men’s under -73 kg judo event at Yeomju Bitgoeul Gymnasium, Monday. An won the gold. / Courtesy of GUOC
By Nam Hyun-woo, Yoon Sung-won
GWANGJU ― Korea picked up six gold medals at the 2015 Gwangju Universiade, Monday, climbing to the top spot in the medals standings.
As the host’s sharp shooters swept up both team and individual events in the women's 25m pistol and in the men's 50m pistol, Korea has a total of 10 gold, eight silver and eight bronze as of 10 p.m., ahead of Japan with nine gold, five silver and eight bronze; and China with eight gold, six silver and five bronze.
Kim Ji-hye, 23, clinched two golds in the women's 25m pistol shooting team and individual events, becoming the first Korean double gold medalist at Gwangju.
Kim teamed up with Cho Mun-hyeon and Han Ji-young and shot 1,738 points, outscoring the Thais with 1,715 points and the Russians with 1,708 points.
Hours later, she beat Zhou Qing Yuan of China 7-5 in the individual event, becoming the surprising heroin of day four.
“I can’t really sense the victory because I never thought I could win,” she told reporters.
In the men’s competition, the trio of Park Dae-hun, Jang Ha-lim and Lee Tae-hwan scored a combined 1655-26x to win the 50m team event, besting the Russians who scored 1636-23x and the Mongolians with 1620-18x.
Park performed better in the individual event, shooting a Universiade record of 193.2 points to surge past Rinat Aiupov of Russia with 191.5 points and Wang Zhiwei of China with 168.9 points.
Park Dae-hun won the men's 50-meter pistol gold medal, Monday. / Courtesy of GUOC
2 Ans, 2 golds
It took just 25 seconds for An Chang-rim to toss over his opponent and clinch the gold in the men’s judo -73 kilogram.
At the Yeomju Bitgoeul Gymnasium, An, the 2015 Asian Senior Judo champion, took down Dmytro Kanivets from Ukraine with a thunderous shoulder throw and bagged Korea’s fifth judo gold and second of the evening.
An drew attention for being a third generation Korean-Japanese. When he won a university competition in Japan two years ago, he was offered to be naturalized as Japanese, but refused citing Korea as his grandfather’s country.
As he won the gold in his first international multi-sport competition with Korean cap, expectations are rising that he might become the No. 1 contender in Korean judo in the category.
Minutes earlier, An Ba-ul in the men’s -66 kilogram, also bagged a gold after beating Alexandre Mariac of France by an ippon.
The lighter An made a fresh start by winning a yuko just 20 seconds into the bout with his specialty shoulder throw. After forcing Mariac into two shidos, An again attempted a shoulder throw and managed to toss the drained Frenchman with 1 minutes and 23 seconds remaining.
Kim Jan-di snatched up a bronze in the women’s -57 kilogram, after immobilizing Anailys Dorvigny of Cuba for 20 seconds, which is equal to an ippon.
Divers synchronize to clinch silver
Ko Eun-ji and Moon Na-yun won a silver in the women’s synchronized 10m platform event at the Nambu University Aquatics Centers in Gwangju.
The Korean diving duo scored 281.88 points, following Canada’s Carol-Ann Ware and Celina Jayne Toth who recorded 297.3 points to win the gold.
The Korean divers have bagged two silvers and a bronze so far in the Universiade.
Archers target the gold
Four Korean archers advanced to the men’s and women’s recurve individual finals, Monday, meaning the country will now come away with two golds and two silvers.
London Olympic gold-medalist Ki Bo-bae beat Denmark’s Maja Buskbjerg Jager 6-5 after a neck-and-neck extra shootout during the women’s semi-final event at the Gwangju International Archery Center. During the preliminary event on Saturday, Ki broke the world record with 686 points.
Choi Mi-sun won against Chinese Taipei’s Hsiung Mei-chien 6-2 to advance to the final against her elder teammate Ki on July 8.
In the men’s individual semi-final between Korean archers Ku Bon-chan and Kim Woo-jin, Ku beat Kim 6-5 to face his other teammate Lee Seung-yun, who reached the final after beating Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chun-heng.