`Mr. Ippon’ Wins South Korea’s First Gold Medal in Athens
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
After three gold-less days, Lee Won-hee finally earned the first gold medal for South Korea in the men’s -73kg class judo event at the Athens Olympics on Monday. The gold came just after North Korea’s Kye Sun-hui claimed a silver medal in the women’s -57kg event for her country’s first medal.
In the final match against Vitaliy MaKarov of Russia, Lee dominated with several attacks from the beginning which gave him two Yoko and one Koka, and finally threw Macarov to the mat with nine seconds left for the gold-clinching Ippon.
Nicknamed ``Mr. Ippon,’’ Lee started his Ippon streak in the round-of-16 against Jimmy Pedro, an old rival of Lee’s who defeated him in last year’s Korea Open.
After quickly disposing of Ukraine’s Gennadiy Bilodid with another Ippon, Lee met Victor Bivol of Moldova in the semifinal where he ran into some trouble. ^Bivol succeeded in earning a Waza-ari with 3:36 left in the match but it took only 10 seconds for Lee to end the match with a throw over his left shoulder, for the third Ippon of the day.
Kye, the gold medallist in the -48kg class eight years ago in Atlanta, had three Ippons in four matches to advance to the final but lost to Yvonne Boenisch of Germany by a Koka, as the tall German succeeded in fending off Kye’s relentless attacks.
North Korea added another silver medal in weightlifting, as Ri Song-hui lifted a combined 232.5 kilograms, placed only behind China’s Yanqin Chen who lifted 237.5 kilograms for the gold.
There was some more good news on the shooting range as Lee Bo-na earned a surprise bronze medal in the women’s trap shooting event.
However, that was mitigated by the stunning loss in badminton by mixed pairs team Ra Kyung-min and Kim Dong-moon in the quarterfinals.
Lee’s bronze was South Korea’s second medal of the Summer Games and also the first in a clay shooting event in the country’s Olympic history.
After earning the final ticket to the six-member final round, the 23-year-old marked the best record of 23 points by hitting her first 12 targets and missing only two of 25. Lee finished with a combined score of 83 points, trailing only Australia’s Suzanne Balogh and Maria Quintanal of Spain who had 88 and 83 points respectively.
In the qualifying round earlier the day, Lee was tied with Emanuela Felici of San Marino for sixth place with 60 points, but won out in a shoot-off.
The biggest shock to South Korea came in the badminton. The invincible duo of Kim and Ra, who were on a 71-game winning streak while claiming 13 successive titles in international competitions, were ambushed by Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen of Denmark in straight sets.
As he played a men’s doubles match earlier the day, Kim looked a bit tired and the pair lost the first set 17-14 to the Danes.
The couple never regained strength as they only managed to take eight points in the second set for a stunning defeat.
Kim and Ha Tae-kwon advanced to the quarterfinals in the men’s doubles event by beating Robert Mateusiak and Michal Logosz of Poland. The other pairs of Lee Dong-soo-Yoo Yong-sung and Yim Bang-eun-Kim Yong-hyun also reached the quarterfinals.
Cheon Min-ho and Je Sung-tae just missed out on medals in the men’s 10-meters event, placing fourth and sixth. Cheon was set for a bronze medal but a horrific 9.4 on his final shot bumped him off the podium.
In table tennis, Oh Sang-eun and Joo Se-hyuk made their way to the quarterfinals in men’s doubles as they beat the German duo of Lars Hielscher and Jorg Rosskopf 4-2 in the third-round match. The women’s couple of Kim Kyung-ah and Kim Bok-rae also routed Jun Gao and Tawny Banh of the U.S. on their way to the last-8. The men’s quarterfinal will be on Thursday, while the women will have their match on Wednesday.
In handball, the men’s team beat the defending champions Russia 35-32 in their second preliminary match and improved their record to 1-1 in Group B.
However, the women’s basketball team suffered another setback, as they fell 81-73 to New Zealand in the Group B preliminary round match.
indizio@koreatimes.co.kr