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Shooters, fencers leading the way for South Korea

September 24, 2014
South Korean fencers once again ruled the piste. Kim Ji-yeon shouts in celebration. (Yonhap)

South Korean fencers once again ruled the piste. Kim Ji-yeon shouts in celebration. (Yonhap)

INCHEON (Yonhap) — South Korean shooters were on the mark on Wednesday, grabbing three out of four gold medals at stake on the day at the Asian Games.

The host also extended its dominance on fencing with two more gold medals, this time from the men’s sabre team and the women’s foil team events. South Korea has won eight of 10 fencing events so far, with the men’s foil and the women’s epee team events remaining.

Kim Jun-hong picked up two gold medals in the team and the individual 25ｍ rapid fire pistol event, as South Korea raised its gold medal tally in shooting to six.

The women’s 50ｍ rifle prone team also won a gold on Wednesday.

Kim Myeong-jin gave South Korea its second gold medal in wushu, beating Hamid Reza Ladvar of Iran in the men’s under-75㎏ sanda event.

Fencers once again ruled the piste. The women’s foil team of Jeon Hee-sook, Nam Hyun-hee, Oh Ha-na and Kim Mi-na defeated China 32-27, giving South Korea its fifth straight Asiad gold in this event.

This was the second gold in Incheon for Jeon, the individual foil champ.

The men’s sabre team of Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jung-hwan, Won Woo-young and Oh Eun-seok won their Asia gold together by beating Iran. The same foursome won the 2010 Asiad silver and the 2012 Olympic gold. Gu also earned his second gold at this Asiad, following his individual gold from earlier.

South Korea grabbed seven gold medals on Wednesday, but they weren’t nearly enough for the host to keep pace with China, which added 19 gold medals on Wednesday to surpass the half-century mark.

China has won 59 gold medals through Wednesday. Right behind South Korea is Japan with 20 gold medals.

South Korea’s baseball team routed Chinese Taipei 10-0 for its second consecutive victory to clinch a berth in the semifinals. Kang Jung-ho, Park Byung-ho and Oh Jae-won each hit a home run in the rout that ended after eight innings on a mercy rule.

Hong Un-jong of North Korea was the women’s vault champion in artistic gymnastics, giving the communist country its first gymnastics gold in Incheon.

Hong later withdrew from uneven bars with a shoulder injury.

North Korea also picked up a weightlifting medal, as Ryo Un-hui took silver in the women’s 69kg class. She set a new Asian Games record of 121kg in the snatch and had a total of 262kg, 6kg lighter than Xiang Yanmei’s gold medal total.

She would have had an opportunity to push Xiang even harder but after lifting 140㎏ in her second clean and jerk attempt, Ryo added only 1㎏ to the bar in her final try.

Officials present in the athletes’ warm-up area later said that Ryo actually had intended to add more weights for her final attempt, but she and her team failed to make the request within the given time limit.

In the men’s weightlifting, Sa Jae-hyouk was disqualified in the men’s 85-kilogram competition after failing in all three clean and jerk attempts.

Sa missed an opportunity to redeem himself more than two years after suffering a severe injury that nearly crippled his career. He hoisted 171㎏ in the snatch, the highest among eight competitors, but failed in all of his clean and jerk attempts.