Lee Eun-Hee “Nobody Can Beat Me“

The Korean Judo team earned three gold medals in the first day of the 2001 Korea Open sponsored by the Korea Racing Association to step up for its third consecutive victory in this event.

It was Lee Eun-Hee (Yeungnam University), a winner of women`s 52 kg class, who attracted the most attention in the first day of the tournament at Halla Gymnasium yesterday.

Last year`s bronze medallist Lee Eun-Hee won a match with `inner thigh hook throw` against Japanese Kajama Mika in 1 minute 13 seconds in the final. As a promising athlete, she showed the possibility for the revival of the Korean women`s judo which has been in a repeated slump.

While Lee Eun-Hee has always remained on the edge of medallist due to the short of abdominal muscle power in spite of excellent game management, but she could win this tournament through the intensive physical training for this tournament.

Winning all four matches with ippon, Lee Eun-Hee proudly showed the remarkable improvement of the techniques as well as the physical strength.

However, the experts say that Lee Eun-Hee should reinforce her own techniques as well as physical energy to survive in the international stage of this weight class, in which there are many distinguished athletes such as North Korean Gye Soon-Hee and Cuban Legna Verdecia. Lee had been eliminated in the second round of the Munich Judo World Championships in July, and had failed to reach the final round in the Fukuoka Tournament in Japan just before this event.

In the first day of the tournament, Jang Sung-Ho, `a hope of Korea men`s judo in heavy weight`, won on points over Lee Won-San (Kyungnam Province) in the 100 kg class. In men`s 90 kg class, rookie Choi Sung-Ha (Yeungnam University) won ippon with `outer winding hook throw` against Japan`s next-generation leading athlete Izumi Hiroshi in just 40 seconds to win his first victory in the international tournament.

Choi Sung-Ha using various skills such as inner thigh throw is expected to fiercely contest with Yoo Sung-Yeon (Donga Univerity) and Park Sung-Keun (Korea Racing Association) in men`s 90 kg class, in which Yoon Dong-Shik had dominated and retired.

Park Sung-Kun, who has been in bad condition due to the weight control failure, was defeated by Izumi with a ippon by `one-arm shoulder throw` in the second round, and he also lost to Fernandez Portal Jose (Spain) by `ankle hooking throw` in the loser`s final.

In men`s 81 kg class, Min Gun-Shik allowed `advancing foot sweep` to Japan`s Nose Eigo to earn a silver medal in the final.

Kim Sang-Ho hyangsan@donga.com