Korea eyes one last shot at wrestling gold
Published: 20 Aug. 2008, 22:31
Germany’s Max Hoff celebrates after winning the semifinal of the kayak’s single K1 1,000-meter race. Hoff will compete in the final tomorrow. [AP]
With one day of competition left in wrestling, Korea has yet to win a gold medal in the sport.
Two more wrestlers in freestyle walked away empty handed yesterday. Jung Yong-ho fell to Serafim Barzakov in the 66-kilogram division.
Cho Byung-kwan lost to Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia in the opening round of the 74-kilogram class. Saytiev won his third Olympic gold medal. Cho then came up one match short of reaching the bronze medal contest, losing to Ivan Fundora of Cuba in the second repechage round.
Korean table tennis player Dang Ye-seo eyes the ball during her round of 32 match against Feng Tianwei yesterday. Dang lost in straight games. [YONHAP]
Korea won at least one gold medal in wrestling in each of the past six Olympics but that streak is in jeopardy in Beijing. There was only one bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, by Park Eun-chul in the 55-kilogram division on Aug. 12.
The final day of the freestyle competition is today, as Kim Jae-gang is entered in the men’s 120-kilogram category.
Wrestling has undergone rule changes in an effort to reward aggressive wrestlers and penalize the passive ones. Wrestlers now compete in three periods, each two minutes in length, rather than two periods of three minutes. There are also more short breaks in between matches than in the past.
Kim Hak-ryeol, secretary general of the Korea Wrestling Federation, acknowledged the Korean wrestlers failed to make the necessary adjustments.
“They’ve failed to conserve their energy as the competition progressed,” Kim said. “Perhaps they’ve been training wrong all along.”
Elsewhere in Beijing, Dang Ye-seo lost to Feng Tianwei of Singapore in the round of 32 in the women’s singles.
Dang was outplayed in the 4-0 (4-11, 5-11, 3-11, 5-11) loss to Feng. Last week in the semifinal of the team event, Feng shut out Dang 3-0 in the opening singles match and relegated Korea to the bronze medal match. Korea ended up with a bronze while Singapore took silver.
And Dang, ranked 26th in the world, was no better against the ninth-ranked Fen, who was in control from the first game, racing to a 7-1 lead and closing it out 11-4.
Feng was relentless in the fourth game, too, taking it 11-5 on a series of backhand drives and well-hit returns. Dang closed to within 7-5 in the fourth game, but Feng scored four unanswered points to wrap up the match.
Dang said she had suffered an emotional letdown after winning the team bronze medal and that affected her performance in the singles.
“Feng was a tough player,” Dang said. “If I can stay on this team, I’d like to play in the 2012 London Olympics again.”
Dang’s coach Hyun Jung-hwa said Dang battled a leg injury throughout the Olympics and didn’t have enough time to prepare against Feng.
“Feng has a tremendous backhand,” said Hyun, who won a doubles gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. “And Ye-seo might have been surprised to see Feng return all her drives.”
In another round of 32 match of the day, Kim Kyung-ah outlasted Japan’s Haruna Fukuoka 4-2 (11-9, 14-16. 12-10, 12-14, 11-9, 11-7).
The patient Fukuoka proved to be a difficult matchup for the defensive-minded Kim, but the veteran Korean mixed her signature spin shots with occasional drives to win the one-hour match.
By Yoo Jee-ho Staff Reporter [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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