Magical double play snags Korea gold
Korean baseball players throw their manager Kim Kyung-moon in the air in celebration of their gold medal on Saturday. [Joint Press Corps]
Korean marathoner Lee Bong-ju competes in his final Olympics yesterday. Lee ranked 28th, with a time of 2:17:56. [Joint Press Corps]
Korea was leading 3-2 but Cuba loaded the bases with one out. Starter Ryu Hyun-jin was literally sweating out the tight situation. Catcher Kang Min-ho had been ejected from the game for arguing with the umpire Carlos Rey Cotto of Puerto Rico over the tight strike zone. Injured catcher Jin Kab-yong had to replace Kang behind the plate. And in came the closer Chong Tae-hyon to face Yuliesky Gourriel.
Manager Kim Kyung-moon revealed after the game that he wanted Ryu to finish up the game and Chong wasn’t initially in the plans because the veteran right-hander wasn’t 100 percent.
Kobe Bryant of the U.S. basketball team goes for a dunk in the gold medal game against Spain yesterday. The United States won 118-107.[AP]
Chong settled on the slider. He got two strikes on two sliders, and threw a third one to get the double play he wanted.
But the second pitch was a mistake that sailed over the middle of the home plate. Gourriel flinched but never got the bat off his shoulder.
“And that,” Chong said, “gave me the confidence to throw another one.”
And when the batted ball skipped past him toward shortstop Park Jin-man?
“My mind went completely blank,” Chong said.
It will go down as the most famous double play in Korean baseball history. And the Korean players went from the brink of a heartbreaking defeat to the plateau of Olympic glory so quickly that the general mood on the team was that of incredulity.
“My heart just about stopped,” Jin said of his feelings after Korea clinched the gold. “What more can I say?”
The baseball victory overshadowed Cha Dong-min’s gold medal in men’s over 80-kilogram taekwondo event. When Cha was in the final against Greece’s Alexandros Nikolaidis, only one of four Korean networks televised it live, while the other three stayed with the ninth inning of the ball game.
Maybe it was because he knew not many back home were watching him live, but Cha said he wasn’t nervous at all against Nikoladis, whom he beat with a spin kick with 18 seconds left in the match.
“I was waiting for my opening for the one last kick,” Cha said. “I wasn’t considered a medal favorite. But I had a favorable draw to the final and I knew I would get my chance.”
On the final day of the competition yesterday, Korean runner Lee Bong-ju ran his fourth and last Olympics marathon. But it wasn’t the kind of finish he had wanted.
The 38-year-old Lee completed his 42.195-kilometer (26 miles and 385 yards) run in two hours, 17 minutes and 56 seconds, ranking 28th among the 76 runners who finished their runs. Kenya’s Samuel Wanjiru won with the Olympic record time of 2:06:32, becoming the first Kenyan to win an Olympic marathon gold.
Lee fell behind early and never recovered. He used his late spurt to zip past a dozen runners, but he wasn’t even the best finisher among three Koreans. The honor goes to Lee Myung-seung, who came in at 18th with 2:14:37.
Lee Bong-ju ends his Olympics career without having captured the elusive gold. At the 1996 Atlanta Games, he finished the marathon at 2:12:39, three seconds behind gold medalist Josia Thugwane of South Africa. It remains the closest Olympic marathon finish ever.
In Beijing, Lee said he didn’t have enough in his tank. “I fell too far behind too early,” he said. “And then I tired easily trying to make up some ground. It rained the night before and it was humid and sticky today.”
The runner added he had had trouble sleeping since arriving in Dalian, China, on Aug. 6 for training.
“I could never get a good sleep and I had to take sleeping pills last night,” Lee said. “I never quite recovered from fatigue.”
Lee, who has previously said Beijing would be his last Olympics but not the last competitive race, declined to elaborate on his immediate future.
Oh, for his part, said the two have yet to discuss Lee’s career beyond the Beijing Games.
As for the race, the coach said he expected the Beijing marathon would be the fastest Olympics race ever, “but not this fast.”
“I’d figured the winner would come in at around two hours and nine minutes, and Lee would be competitive,” Oh said. “But the top runners jumped out early and we couldn’t catch up.”
By Yoo Jee-ho Staff Reporter [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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