Women’s Basketball Wins Fourth Consecutive Ticket to Olympics

The veterans came back to lead Korean women’s basketball to its fourth consecutive Olympic Games.

Korea beat Chinese Taipei, 80-70 in the Incheon Samsan World Gymnasium on June 9 during the semifinals of the 22nd FIBA Asia Championship for Women. Park Jung Eun (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Beon Yeon-Ha (19 points – three three-pointers) led the team to the finals against China and earned a ticket to the Olympics.

China, who will be automatically participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as host, beat Japan in the semifinals, 74-62, giving the remaining ticket to Korea regardless of the final results. This is the fourth consecutive Olympic that the Korean women’s basketball team will be participating in since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In December last year, during the Doha Asian Games, Korean women’s basketball was in a pitiful state. Under the slogan of “generation change,” senior players were all excluded from the team, resulting in the team’s defeats to Chinese Taipei, Japan, and China. It was the first time that Korea had participated in the Asian Games and won no medals at all.

However, in preparation for the FIBA Championship, Park Jung Eun and Jung Sun Min returned to the team, and the synergy of experienced players and newcomer Ha Eun Joo (202 centimeters) made the team much stronger.

kimsk@donga.com