 South Korea's Lee Hyo-jung, left, and Lee Yongdae, wave after receiving their gold medals during the awards ceremony for the mixed doubles badminton finals at the Beijing Olympics Sunday. / AP-Yonhap |
By By Kang Seung-wooStaff Reporter
South Korean weightlifting star Jang Mi-ran won a gold medal and broke three world records in the women's over 75-kilogram competition Saturday at the Beijing Olympics.
In what was labeled a ``competition for the world record,'' the three-time defending world champion lifted a total of 326 kilograms, a seven-kilogram improvement on the previous record she shared with China's Mu Shuangshuang.
Jang, 24, also set world records with lifts of 140 kilograms in the snatch and 186 in the clean and jerk.
Olha Korobka of Ukraine, who did not try her final clean and jerk attempt after realizing she could not match Jang's score, finished second with a total of 277 kilograms. Kazakhstan's Mariya Grabovetskaya hoisted a total of 270 kilograms to take the bronze.
The gold medal made Jang the first South Korean woman to claim an Olympic weightlifting title.
Before Jang's victory, the country had produced two Olympic silver medalists on the women's side ― Yoon Jin-hee in the women's 53-kilogram division in Beijing and Jang at the 2004 Athens Games.
In addition, Jang's championship ended China's Olympic dominance in the weight class. Since women's weightlifting was introduced at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, China won the first two titles in the over 75-kliogram division before Jang's victory.
The Korean badminton duo of Lee Yong-dae and Lee Hyu-jung won gold by beating No. 1-ranked Liliyana Natsir and Nova Widianto of Indonesia 21-11, 21-17 in Sunday's mixed doubles final.
Their gold was South Korea's first in mixed doubles since Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min topped the field at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
After winning their first set easily, Lee and Lee, who have played together since March 2007, took a 9-3 lead in the second. The Indonesians cut their deficit to 19-17, but Lee Yong-dae pulled off two straight smashes to help the Koreans hold off their opponents' late charge.
South Korea has won a total of eight gold, nine silver and four bronze medals at the Oympics, so far.
Its eight golds put it in a tie with Australia and Japan for the fifth most golds. China leads with 32, followed by the United States with 19, Great Britain with 11 and Germany with nine.
South Korea also claimed a bronze medal in the women's table tennis team competition with a 3-0 win over Japan.
Korea's Kim Kyung-ah defeated Sayaka Hirano 11-9, 11-4, 7-11, 12-10 in the first match, then Dang Ye-seo overpowered world No. 12 Ai Fukuhara 11-4, 13-11, 7-11, 11-3.
In doubles, Park Mi-young and Kim defeated Haruna Fukuoka and Hirano 11-6, 6-11, 11-6, 6-11, 11-9.
South Korea lost to Singapore 3-2 in the semifinals Friday.
The Korean women's basketball squad advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Latvia 72-68.
South Korea, coached by Jung Duk-hwa, placed fourth out of six teams in Group A, after picking up wins against Brazil and Latvia.
On Tuesday, the Koreans will face the Group B-leading United States, which is riding a 29-game winning streak in the Olympics.
South Korea led Latvia by 17 points in the second half, but Latvia came back to cut the lead to 70-68 with eight seconds to go.
However, point guard Lee Mi-sun hit two free throws on Korea's final possession to seal the win.
Korea's Park Jung-eun had 17 points, including five 3-pointers, and Jung Sun-min added 15 points.
Korea's baseball team remained undefeated in the Beijing Olympics, edging host China 1-0 with a walk-off hit by Lee Seung-yeop in the 11th inning.
The teams played seven scoreless innings of the game on Thursday, before it was postponed due to rain. When the contest resumed Sunday, the scoreless tie continued until 10 innings were complete.
A new tiebreaker rule was instated for the Beijing Olympics that if a game is tied entering the 11th inning, teams begin the inning with runners on first and second bases with no outs and managers can start their lineup at any place in the batter order.
Korea, which improved its record to 4-0, began the bottom of the 11th with speedy Lee Jong-wook on second base and Lee Yong-kyu on first.
Jeong Keun-woo reached on a bunt to load the bases, and Lee, who had produced only one hit in the tournament before his 11th-inning at-bat, hit a pitch from Lv Jiangang into left field to drive in the winning run.
South Korea will meet Cuba Tuesday.
ksw@koreatimes.co.kr
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