Korea pushes medal count to 30 as Paralympics nears close
Published: 08 Sep. 2024, 13:28
Updated: 08 Sep. 2024, 15:40
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- PAIK JI-HWAN
- [email protected]
![Korea's Kim Young-gun celebrates beating Wanchai Chaiwut of Thailand 3-2 in the men’s table tennis singles final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Saturday. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/09/08/db67c21f-7620-467d-98b4-c2a10f606e2e.jpg)
Korea's Kim Young-gun celebrates beating Wanchai Chaiwut of Thailand 3-2 in the men’s table tennis singles final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Saturday. [NEWS1]
Team Korea added four more medals at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games on Friday and Saturday to bring their total medal count to 30 a day before the tournament wraps up.
Kim Jung-gil took an automatic bronze after losing the men’s singles table tennis semifinal 3-2 to Wanchai Chaiwut of Thailand on Saturday, but Kim Young-gun beat the Thai player 3-2 in the final later in the day to win Korea’s second gold medal in the sport this year.
Over in women's table tennis, Yoon Ji-yu won silver on Friday after losing the singles final 3-2 to Andela Muzinic of Croatia. Fencer Kwon Hyo-kyeong also took silver after losing the women’s epee final to Chen Yuandong of China, which marked Korea’s first medal in fencing at the Paralympics since 1996.
![Kwon Hyo-kyeong, left, attacks Chen Yuandong of China in the women's epee final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Friday. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/09/08/a893c396-2f8d-4005-bcc9-608e25da4e9a.jpg)
Kwon Hyo-kyeong, left, attacks Chen Yuandong of China in the women's epee final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Friday. [NEWS1]
Yoon’s medal was Korea’s third silver in table tennis, the sport the country has been best at this year’s tournament so far. It is the only sport at which Korea has won over 10 medals, at 14 — two gold, three silver and nine bronze.
The country’s run in the sport has been even more successful than their run at the Paris Olympics, where they ended with two bronze medals.
Korea has also collected the second-most medals in the sport at this year’s Paralympics after No. 1 China, with 24 as of press time Sunday.
But while table tennis is where Korea has won the most medals, shooting has provided the most golds: Three, in addition to one silver and two bronze.
Alongside table tennis and shooting, boccia remains the only other sport where Korea has won gold so far. The country has won one gold, three silver and one bronze in the sport.
Boccia is similar to the winter Olympic sport of curling in which players throw six balls at a white target ball called the jack, and the team, pair or individual that finishes with the ball closest to the jack score at each end. Korea is a boccia powerhouse, and won gold at the last nine Paralympics, starting with the 1988 Seoul Games.
But it's not all good news. Korea has not won and will not win a single medal in judo at this year's Games, despite medaling at the last three Paralympics.
Kim Dong-hoon in the men’s -73 kilogram category was the country’s last contender for this year’s Games, but he lost to Uchkun Kuranbaev of Uzbekistan in the bronze medal contest on Friday.
![Korean judoka Kim Dong-hoon, front, competes against Uchkun Kuranbaev of Uzbekistan in the men’s -73 kilogram bronze medal contest at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Friday. [AFP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/09/08/67808d4c-4c26-4b14-af7c-8807692bcd3c.jpg)
Korean judoka Kim Dong-hoon, front, competes against Uchkun Kuranbaev of Uzbekistan in the men’s -73 kilogram bronze medal contest at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Friday. [AFP/YONHAP]
Medals in powerlifting were also on the line Friday, but Kim Gyu-ho finished fourth after lifting 202 kilograms in the men’s up to 80-kilogram final on Friday and Kim Hyeong-hui finished in ninth with 95 kilograms in the women’s up to 67-kilogram final on the same day.
Jeong Youn-shil also missed a medal in powerlifting after finishing sixth in the women’s up to 73-kilogram final the next day.
Had any of them medaled, it would have been Korea’s first medal in powerlifting at the Paralympics since 2012.
One more opportunity in powerlifting remains for Korea, with Yang Jae-won set to compete in the women’s up to 86-kilogram final later on Sunday as of press time.
Yang and Yoo Byung-hoon in the men’s marathon on Sunday are the last Korean athletes to compete at this year’s tournament.
Regardless of whether the two athletes medal or not, Korea will finish this year’s Games with more medals than they claimed at the last tournament, having already won 30 medals to surpass 24 at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.
The country will wrap up the tournament without a single medal in team sports, however, with the women’s goalball team having crashed out of the quarterfinals after losing to Turkey. The women’s goalball team was Korea’s only team at this year’s Games.
The women’s team’s quest to win the country’s first medal in goalball at the tournament ended despite joining the Paralympics on the back of a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games last year.
Goalball is played by two teams of three players on the same size court as volleyball. Teams roll a ball containing bells at high speeds toward a court-wide goal, with defending players throwing themselves in front of the ball in an attempt to stop it. Each game is played over two 12-minute halves and spectators have to stay completely silent.
Korea sit in 20th place on the medal standings with 30 as of press time. China sit at the top of table with 216, followed by No. 2 Great Britain at 120 and No. 3 United States at 102.
If Korea finish with the current 30 medals, it will be good enough to match their result at the 1996 Games and mark the first time ending the tournament with 30 medals or more since the 2016 Games, when the country claimed 35 medals.
BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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