Korea's golden campaign continues
Archer Lee Seung-yun competes in the Gwangju Universiade men’s recurve individual finals at the Gwangju International Archery Center, Wednesday. / Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo, Yoon Sung-won
GWANGJU ― Korean athletes yet again performed better than expected at the 2015 Gwangju Universiade, Wednesday, with its archers, shooters, badminton players and taekwondo practitioners claiming nine gold medals on day six of the 12-day event.
As of 9:30 p.m. Korea sits in top position on the medals table with 28 gold, 17 silver and 14 bronze, brushing off the pursuit of No. 2 China with 17 gold, 10 silver and 8 bronze, and No. 3 Japan with 16 gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze.
The country initially set its target as bagging 25 gold to finish in the third place, but with the event went half way through, the country has already reached its goal thanks to its shooters and archers.
The archers collected eight out of 10 gold in the sport.
The trio of Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun together clinched a gold medal in the men’s recurve team discipline.
At the Gwangju International Archery Center, the male archer trio won 5-1 against Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chun-heng, Yu Guan-lin and Wang Hou-chieh in the final.
In the team final, archers are allowed to shoot six arrows each in four sets. Two points are given per win and one point for a draw as the Koreans secured victory.
Korea beat Chinese Taipei 58-55 and 59-54 in the first and the second set, adding another point from the 57-57 draw in the third set.
Lee, who shot six consecutive 10s, said: “I tried to shoot as I practiced. The actual contest went much easier than I had thought.”
In the recurve mixed discipline, Lee paired with Ki Bo-bae and beat Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chun-heng and Tan Ya-ting 5-4.
The Korean duo reached a 4-4 tie after the fourth set. They surpassed their opponents 19-17 in the extra-time shoot-off combining Ki’s 10 and Lee’s 9.
Hours later, Lee and Ki each won the recurve individual events, with Lee outperforming Ku 6-0, and Ki clinching a 6-5 shoot-off victory over her compatriot Choi Mi-sun.
Lee became the second triple gold medalist among the Koreans at the Universiade and Ki also collected her second gold.
From left, taekwondo practitioners Jo Jeong-hun, Jang Se-hoon and Lee Gwang-hyun compete in the men’s team poomsae finals at the Chosun University Gymnasium in Gwangju, Wednesday. / Yonhap
Korea sweeps poomsae, wins mixed badminton
The Koreans swept up the taekwondo poomsae team events.
In the men’s team poomsae, Jang Se-hoon, Jo Jeong-hun and Lee Gwang-hyun scored a combined 7.52 points in the demonstrative taekwondo event to outperform Indonesia with 7.38 points and Chinese Taipei with 7.36 points.
In the women’s team event, Choi Hyo-seo, Choi Ji-eun and Gwak Yeo-won scored 7.62 points to beat Chinese Taipei with 7.57 points and Iran with 7.48 points at the Chosun University Gymnasium.
Later on the evening, Gwon Hyeok-in and Lee Jae-hee teamed up to win the mixed doubles event with 7.63 points.
In Hwasun, near the host city of Gwangju, the mixed badminton team of Kim Gi-jung, Shin Seung-chan, Son Wan-ho, Lee Yong-dae and Ko Sung-hyun blanked the Chinese team 3-0. It was Korea’s second consecutive mixed team gold, following one at the 2013 Universiade in Kazan.
Korea collects more medals in shooting
Pistol shooter Han Ji-young added another gold to Korea’s collection, winning the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Naju Jeollanamdo Shooting Range.
Han shot a total of 198.8 points, rallying past Thailand’s Princhuda Methaweewong who posted 197.6 to threaten Han’s double gold-medalist bid.
During the tightly contested competition, the Thai held the lead until Han shot perfect 10.9 in the middle of the competition. Han held onto the lead until the end of the competition.
Han teamed up earlier with Kim Ji-hye and Cho Mun-hyeon to win the women’s 25m pistol team event on Monday and clinched her second and Korea’s fifth gold in shooting. Kim became the first Korean double gold medalist in Gwangju by winning the team event.
Including Han’s gold, Korea collected gold, silver and bronze in Wednesday’s shooting event
Prior to Han, the trio of Park Jun-woo, Lee Kyung-won and Han Sang-hun won a silver in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event. They posted 1,711 points to follow the Russians with 1,722 points. India collected a bronze with 1,608 points.
In the men’s 50m rifle prone team event, Kim Hyeon-jun, Lee Won-gyu and Kwon Il-gu combined for 1,855.9 points to finish in third place. The French posted the highest score with 1,862.3 points, followed by Poland with 1,865.4 points.
Gymnast Son vows to perform without error
Son Yeon-jae, Korea’s star athlete in the rhythmic gymnastics, entered the Universiade athlete’s village in Gwangju, Wednesday, after two weeks of training in Russia.
She pledged to provide a performance without any mistakes.
“This is the second Universiade for me. This time, it means more because it is held in my homeland,” Son told the Yonhap News Agency at the Incheon International Airport. “Throughout the festivities, I believe I need to present my best performance to gain good results because there are plenty of world-class athletes participating in the event.”
She clinched a silver in ball discipline during the Kazan Universiade two years ago. It was the first Universiade medal in the country’s rhythmic gymnastics history.
Son is scheduled to participate in the individual preliminary on July 11 through the finals two days later.
“I will concentrate on performing with perfection and without a mistake because aiming for a medal can make me greedy and hasty,” she said.
Rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae arrives at the Universiade athlete’s village in Gwangju, Wednesday. / Courtesy of GUOC