Fill-in gymnast shares gold with Chinese

South Korean gymnast Kim Dae-eun pulled out of the men’s all-around event in artistic gymnastics in Doha because of a left heel injury ― his strategy was to concentrate on one event. The game plan paid off.

Kim won the gold medal in the parallel bars early yesterday, and was joined at the top of the podium by China’s reigning world champion, Yang Wei. Both men scored 16.3 points. Kim’s gold was Korea’s second in gymnastics in two days. Kim Ji-hoon in the men’s horizontal bar added a bronze to the gymnastics tally, which now sits at two golds and three bronze medals. Kim Dae-eun wasn’t initially penciled in for the parallel bars, but a knee injury to a teammate, Yang Tae-young, forced him to be the replacement starter. And Kim ended up getting the gold, his first on the international stage. Not bad for a fill-in. “It was tough to settle for silver in all-around at the Athens Olympics,” Kim said. “To hear our national anthem, and to watch the flag being raised, it’s just a special feeling.” But he had to share the spotlight with Yang Wei. “Yang wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t that bad either,” Kim said. “I was confident I could at least get a tie for the gold. But it’s always better to win alone than to share the title.” The 22-year-old gymnast said he will go for gold at the Beijing summer Olympics in 2008. “This Asiad has been a huge boost to my confidence,” Kim said. Elsewhere, Shin Eun-chul brought Korea’s first Asiad gold in rowing at men’s single sculls. Korea previously had nine silver medals to show for in its Asian Game rowing history. His time of 3:38.04 easily beat India’s Bajranglal Takhar’s 3:39.43. In another first for Korea, Kim Hyun-sub won the silver medal in men’s 20-kilometer walk, the first medal of any color for Korea in Asian Games walk. Kim’s medal ended Korea’s dubious streak of disqualification at walk races in recent international events. At the World Championship in Athletics in 2003, Lee Dae-ro and Kim Mi-jung were each disqualified in men’s and women’s race for moving their rear feet off the ground before the front one had touched down. Kim committed the same offense at the Athens Summer Olympics. Kim Hyun-sub did receive one foul during the race - three fouls mean automatic disqualification ― but he said he was never concerned about it and able to focus on winning a medal. Two more medals came from shooting. The men’s pistol team got the gold in the 25-meter standard event, and Park Byung-taek, a member of the winning threesome, captured an individual silver also at the 25-meter standard. Meanwhile, the swimming pool continued to be a playground for17-year-old speedster Park Tae-hwan. He won the silver medal in men’s 100-meter freestyle. His time of 50.20 seconds is a Korean record. “This was a good experience for me,” Park said. “I know I have a lot of room for improvement in short distances. I need to work on my start and turns.” The eyes of the nation were on Park just past midnight, as he was gunning for his third gold in the 1,500-meter freestyle. Having swum for four consecutive days, Park admitted to “feeling exhausted,” and said he was going to take some time off before the 1,500-meter final. Park already has two golds, a silver and two bronze medals in Doha. The picture hasn’t been as rosy in table tennis, where South Korean athletes have been stifled by their Chinese counterparts. For the first time in 20 years, Korea failed to win an Asiad gold in table tennis. Two silvers and three bronzes were all results of losses to the Chinese. The latest setback came in mixed doubles, where the Lee Jung-woo-Lee Eun-hee pairing fell 4-2 against China’s Ma Lin and Wang Na. Earlier in the day, in men’s singles, reigning Olympic gold medallist Ryu Seung-min fell to China’s Wang Hao in the semifinal and got the bronze medal. Ryu has a 1-10 career record against Wang; his sole win came at the singles final in the Athens Summer Olympics. “I gave 100 percent, but Wang played much better,” Ryu conceded. “He is just a better player than I am. But that doesn’t mean I will stop trying and preparing to beat him again.” Over on the pitch, North Korea upset Japan 2-1 in their final group match and set up a loser-out North-South showdown in the quarterfinals early Sunday morning. Hong Yong-jo and Kim Yong-jun scored the goals for North Korea, while Yugo Ichiyanagi had the lone marker for Japan. North Korea advanced to the quarterfinals with seven points. Japan was tied with other group runners-up Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar at six points, but was eliminated on the goal-differential tiebreaker. The inter-Korean battle will be the first head-to-head matchup in the Asian Games in 26 years. At the 1978 Bangkok Asiad, the North and South played to a scoreless draw in the final and shared the gold medal. “Too bad we’re playing each other so early,” said North Korea head coach Ri Jeong-man. “I was hoping we would meet in the gold medal match.” South Korea has the edge in head-to-head contests by senior men’s teams with five wins, three draws and a loss. The latest meeting came at last year’s East Asian Football Championship, when the Koreas ended up in a 0-0 tie. “We were pretty even the last year,” Ri said. “I expect us to play at a similar level this time around.” For the South to advance to the semifinals, it will have to avoid foul trouble. Both of North Korea’s goals against Japan came on free kicks just outside the box. They were the only two shots on net the opportunistic North had in the match. South Korea has yet to allow a goal in Doha, but coach Pim Verbeek said the team has had lady luck in the net so far. Verbeek will have to form his lineup without forward Park Chu-young, who received two yellow cards in the preliminary round. Park will return for the semifinal, if South Korea advances. Late last night, the women’s soccer teams from the two Koreas played their final preliminary group matches. Both already had clinched berths in the semifinals. Meanwhile, China may need a dump truck for its medal haul, having gone well past the century mark in medal totals. It has 85 golds so far. China’s gold medals came in a range of events, including snooker, table tennis, weightlifting, artistic gymnastics and swimming. South Korea still trails Japan in the battle for the second place, but will have a chance to make up some ground. Taekwondo got underway last night, and Korea has athletes in 12 of the 16 weight classes ― at least nine gold medals are possible in the Korean martial art. Also ahead is archery, another traditionally strong sport for South Korea. More taekwondo matches are scheduled for today. There are finals for soft tennis, tennis and bowling on slate. Golf gets underway today as well. by Yoo Jee-ho