Koreans strike gold in judo again

For the second straight day at Doha, judo and soft tennis were gold mines for South Korea. The nation also rode to a third straight Asiad gold in the equestrian dressage team event.

Yesterday evening, Korean shooters won two more gold medals. Son Hye-kyoung, who overcame an eye injury, got a gold in women’s double trap, and helped the women’s double trap team capture another. Overall, Korea got four more medals in shooting: a silver in men’s running target team, and bronze in men’s 50-meter pistol team, women’s double trap, and women’s 25-meter pistol. Sports giant China bolstered its No. 1 status in the medal race by adding 15 more gold medals in artistic gymnastics, road cycling, shooting and weightlifting. World champion Yang Wei won the men’s all-around title in gymnastics to give China its eighth consecutive triumph of the event in the 15th Asian Games. Teenager He Ning also won the women’s all-around title by beating her teammate Zhou Zhuoru by 0.4 points. As expected, China has a stranglehold on the overall medal standings with 46 golds, followed by a dogfight between Japan with 12 and South Korea with nine. Early yesterday, South Korean judoka Lee Won-hee knocked out Japan’s Masahiro Takamatsu to clinch the gold in the men’s under-73 kilogram division. Lee has now beaten Takamatsu in their last four meetings. An Asian Game gold was the only achievement missing from Lee’s otherwise impressive resume, which includes World and Asian championships in 2003 and an Olympic gold medal at Athens in 2004. Lee is now the first Korean judo wrestler to hold all four titles. “The fact that I achieved [holding four championships] is meaningful because I did it wearing our national flag on my chest,” Lee said. “This has less to do with my personal records.”

Lee likes to make quick work of his opponents, and is dubbed “a man of ippon.” Ippon in judo is akin to a knockout in boxing, and the ippon score ends the match regardless of time left on clock. Lee took four of the five matches in Doha, including the gold medal match, by ippon, just as he had won three of four contests in Athens by ippon to claim gold. Perhaps it was all well and good that Lee, 25, didn’t have to stay on the mat too long because he was competing with an injured left knee ligament and right ankle. But the injuries might have been blessings in disguise. “Because I wasn’t 100 percent, I had to stay focused and not let up until the end,” Lee acknowledged. “And I think that ultimately helped me win gold here.” Kim Kwang-sub, in men’s 66-kilogram, and Kang Sin-young, in women’s 57-kilogram, added bronze medals to South Korea’s tally. Lee’s victory, South Korea’s third judo gold, spoiled another attempt at gold by Japan, which has garnered only three out of 12 gold medals so far in its native sport. There are four more judo gold medals up for grabs in Doha. On the soft tennis court, the South Koreans didn’t have to face Japanese competition in the mixed doubles final. They played each other instead. Kim Ji-eun and We Hyu-hwan won South Korea’s second gold medal in the sport, topping Kim Kyung-ryun and You Young-dong 5-2. Kim Ji-eun is the nation’s first double-gold medallist, having taken the gold in the women’s team event Monday. And she isn’t stopping now.

“I am going for four gold medals,” she said. Kim will play in women’s singles and doubles this week. South Korea swept seven golds in soft tennis in the 2002 Asian Games in Busan. While it won’t repeat the sweep at Doha ― the men’s team got bronze on Sunday ― it could still win as many as six. For the 37-year-old We, it was his first gold medal on the international stage. He admitted it was “difficult to compete against my teammates for the gold,” and that prior to the final, he didn’t speak to the Kim-You pairing about the match. Still, We said, “It was an emotional victory personally, given all I’ve gone through to finally get the gold at my age.” For another veteran in another sport, 44-year-old Suh Jung-kyun in equestrian, getting the Asiad gold was nothing new. Teamed with Choi Jun-sang, Kim Dong-seon, and Shin Soo-jin, Suh helped Korea get its third consecutive Asiad gold medal in the dressage team event, where a horse performs set movements and choreographed routines over three rounds. Suh now has six Asian Game golds, tying him for the most by a Korean athlete with retired male archer Yang Chang-hoon. “I want to compete in the Olympics again,” said Suh. “As long as I can get a good horse to compete with, and if my physical strength holds up, I will represent my country.” For every feel-good story in Doha, there also were some disappointments for the Korean delegation. Male gymnast Yang Tae-young missed Monday’s all-around event because of a knee injury sustained during his horizontal bar routine at the men’s team competition on Saturday, when he slipped from the bar and landed awkwardly. He hoped to participate in the parallel bars finals, which begin at 11 tonight, but Yoon Chang-sun, the team’s head coach, ruled Yang out for the rest of the Asiad. It was only the latest setback for the hard-luck star. In the men’s all-around contest in Athens two years ago, Yang received the incorrect start value and missed out on the gold medal. The International Gymnastics Federation suspended the judge responsible for the error, but it didn’t overturn the results to award Yang the gold. Last year, injuries kept Yang off the podium at the World Championships. Yang, 26, now must wait two more years for a shot at an elusive Olympic gold in Beijing. Elsewhere, North Korea got its first gold in women’s judo from An Kum-ae. Along with the gold, the North had four silvers and seven bronzes. by Yoo Jee-ho