Men’s Gymnastics, Inches Away from the Bronze

“I’ve caught the feeling for a second straight Olympic win.”

“Archery queen” Yun Mi-jin (Kyunghee University), the two-time winner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, tied the Olympic record and advanced to the round of 16.

Yun Mi-jin passed Japan’s Sayami Matsushita 173-149 in the women’s individual round of 32, held in Panathinaiko Stadium on August 17. Her score of 173 tied the Olympic record she set in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Yun will fight for the quarterfinals with Jennifer Nichols (USA) on August 18.

Lee Sung-jin (Jeollabuk Provincial Government) defeated Elpida Romantzi of Greece 166-146 and joined the round of 16, competing with Margarita Galinovskaya (Russia).

The Korean men’s field hockey team, which won the silver at the Sydney Olympics, won over powerful Great Britain. Lee Jung-seon (Sungnam City Hall) scored two goals in the preliminary match, and Korea won 3-2 over Great Britain, scoring one win and one tie, brightening the way for the semifinals. Korea will compete with Pakistan in a third match on August 19.

Meanwhile, the Korean men’s gymnastics team came in fourth in the team final, placing the highest ever since its first participation in the 1960 Rome Olympics. Korea scored a total of 171.847 points, behind by only 0.537 points from bronze winner Rumania (172.384 points), showing a big improvement as medal contenders.

Yang Tae-young (Kyeongsangbuk-do Sports Council), the quadruple gold medalist at the 2003 Daegu Universiade, who boosted the team up the most in the team final, placed second and will be going on to the individual all-round final, with a lucky breakthrough into the horizontal bar finals.

At the preliminary round for the horizontal bar on August 15, four gymnasts ranked a joint-eighth place with a score of 7.737, and by following the tie-breaking rules, the tie between Yang Tae-young, Fabian Hambuechen (Germany) and Valeri Goncharov (Ukraine) could not be broken, and these three gymnasts all advanced to the finals. Yang Tae-young will be competing for a medal in the individual all-round final on August 19 and the horizontal bar finals on August 24.