Koreans Excel at Summer Universiade Games

Korean youths are putting their passions on display at the 2007 Summer Universiade Games.

South Korean athletes who are taking part in the 2007 Summer Universiade Thailand, a sports festival for college students worldwide, are performing dramatic feats despite injuries and bad conditions.

On August 14, male judoist Kim Min-gyu (25•Suwon City Hall) touched the hearts of others by winning a silver medal worth a gold medal.

Kim Min-gyu, the winner of the Mongolia East Asia Championship in September last year, bumped into his Russian counterpart’s during a match in the round of 16 and got an inch-long scar near his eye, but won the game nevertheless.

He wore a bandage to take part in the semifinal and defeated an Uzbekistan judoist by a chip. But he was narrowly defeated by a judoist from the Republic of Georgia in the final match and took the silver.

Female taekwondo athlete Yim Su-jeong (21, Kyunghee University) also displayed her firm will.

Yim Su-jeong, a gold medalist at the 2002 Busan Asian Games suffered a bad injury to her left ankle as she was attempting a kick against her Thai counterpart in the semifinals on August 11.

The medical staff advised her to give up the match. But Yim faced the match, enduring the pain, and won, 7-3. With her ankle swollen, she reached the finals and won a gold medal after defeating her Thai counterpart, 8-1.

Female swimmer Jung Seul-gi (19, Yonsei University) also showed great passion. She caught a severe cold after winning a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke on August 11, and was in bad shape. But she chose to get an injection of Ringer´s solution to take part in the 100-meter breaststroke on August 14 and broke the Korean record with a time of 1:09:98.

hic@donga.com