“Taking Advantage of the Chinese at the Unguarded Moment of Interchange”

Korea was smarter than China after all.

In the relay, in which 4 athletes take turns in running, strategy decides the outcome when there is no difference in competence. That is why the two rivals of ladies 3000m relay, Korea and China, had been minutely preparing their strategies for this Olympics.

Korea’s `hidden card` for the match was to overtake the others without interchange between the athletes. The decisive moment was when the last 8 out of 27 rounds were left. Until then, the order followed China – Korea – Canada. However, as soon as coach Jun Myung-Kyu gave a sign, Joo Min-Jin escaped the pattern of one athlete running a round each, and ran without interchanging to overtake China while Yang (S) Yang was pushing Yang (A) Yang.

Joo Min-Jin, who instantly overtook China, ran 2 rounds alone, and then, the order followed Choi Min-Kyung – Choi Eun-Kyung – Park Hae-Won – Joo Min-Jin. Choi Min-Kyung was the last runner and she passed the finish line claiming the gold.

The confused Chinese team failed to chase back Korea, as Yang (A) Yang lost balance and halted a little with the last two rounds left.

The Korean team’s play on the day was the strategy that coach Jun had been planning since 4 years ago. "I’ve been thinking of this strategy since 1998 Nagano Olympics. We tried it once at 2000 International Championship. It worked, but the result was failing that we only got silver after China.", said Jun.

He also added, "When I observed and carefully analyzed the video of the Chinese team, I found out that Yang (S) Yang delayed a small amount of time when she changed. Whoever from our 4 athletes would be Yang’s partner, I trained the team to be ready to run 2 rounds to overtake while Yang changed the baton."

It was, however, 3 days before the game when he finally decided to use the strategy. Korea, which ran the order of Choi Min-Kyung – Choi Eun-Kyung – Park Hae-Won – Joo Min-Jin in the preliminary, changed the first runner with Joo in order to confuse China.

The Korean team is known to have secretly practiced the tactic of overrunning China with Joo as the first runner on the day of finals at the Salt Lake City Complex.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com