South Korea empty-handed on day 3 of Rio Olympics

South Korean athletes fail to clinch any medals on day three of the Rio Olympics as strong medal contenders are knocked out in the early rounds. From left are An Chang-rim in the men’s -73 kg class, from left, and Kim Jan-di in the women’s -57 kg, fencer Kim Ji-yeon in the women’s individual sabre, and archer Kim Woo-jin in men’s individual archery. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

South Korea won no medals on day three of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics as several medal contenders failed to live up to expectations, especially in judo and fencing.

Empty-handed, South Korea is now eighth in the Olympic medal standings with two gold, two silver and one bronze. The U.S. leads the standings with five gold, seven silver and seven bronze, followed by China with five gold, three silver and five bronze. Japan came in fifth with three gold and seven bronze.

Judo produced a series of shocking defeats as top rankers in their weight classes were eliminated in the early rounds, Tuesday (KST).

In the men’s 73 kg class, world No.1 An Chang-rim lost to Dirk van Tichelt of Belgium by a waza-ari (half a point) in the round of 16 while An’s longtime nemesis Shohei Ono of Japan netted a gold medal for his country.

Kim Jan-di, the world No.2 in the women’s 57 kg class, also couldn’t get past the round of 16 after taking a loss to Rafaela Silva of Brazil.

Due to their defeats, South Korea which had three top-ranking judoka — An Ba-ul in the men’s 66 kg, Kim Won-jin in the men’s 60 kg and An Chang-rim — only garnered one silver medal from An Ba-ul, Monday.

Another shocking elimination came in archery after global top archer Kim Woo-jin was knocked out in the second round of the men’s individual event.

The 24-year-old Kim, a member of the Rio gold-winning team in the men’s team competition, succumbed to unheralded Riau Ega Agatha of Indonesia 2-6 (29-27, 27-28, 24-27 and 27-28). Kim, who broke the 72-arrow individual world record with a score of 700 in Friday’s ranking round, got off to a good start winning in the first set but was stunned by Ega Agatha in the next three.

Relieving news came from the women’s side as Ki Bo-bae cruised to defend her individual women’s event title from the 2012 London Olympics. After defeating Shehzana Anwar of Kenya in the first round by a set score of 7-1, Ki beat Veronika Marchenko of Ukraine 6-2 to make the round of 16. Ki will challenge for an individual gold medal Thursday night.

South Korean fencers, who clinched six medals at the 2012 London Games including two gold, also failed to live up to their reputation in Rio.

Defending Olympic sabre champion Kim Ji-yeon was eliminated in the round of 16, falling to Italy’s Loreta Gulotta by 15-13. Her fellow fencers Seo Ji-yeon and Hwang Seon-a also took losses in the round of 32.

Swimmer Kim Seo-yeong, who advanced to the women’s 200-meter semifinals with a South Korean record of 2 minutes and 11.75 seconds, failed to advance to the final after placing 12th among 16 swimmers (2 minutes 12.15 seconds).

Meanwhile, Chinese superstar Sun Yang became the first Chinese swimmer to win in the men’s 200-meter freestyle. The 24-year-old clocked in at 1 minute 44.65 seconds, just 0.5 seconds faster than South Africa’s Chad Le Clos. Conor Dwyer of the United States took bronze in 1 minute 45.23 seconds.

In table tennis, Lee Sang-su was knocked out in the men’s singles third round while Jeoung Young-sik lost in a fourth-round match against world No.1 Ma Long. Both Jeon Ji-hee and Suh Hyo-won were knocked out in the women’s singles fourth round.

South Korean women’s volleyball team had a Pool A preliminary match with Russia and lost 1-3 (25-23, 23-25, 25-23, 25-14). Prior to the volleyball game, South Korean women’s handball team and hockey team both lost to Sweden (28-31) and the Netherlands (0-4), respectively.