Men’s Gymnastics Advances to Olympics Team Competition for Fifth Consecutive Time

The Korean men’s gymnastics team won its ticket to the Beijing Olympics’ team competition for the fifth consecutive Olympic Games.

Korea rose to eighth place with a combined score of 360.400 in six events in the team preliminary competition yesterday at the 40th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2007, in Germany, securing a ticket to the Beijing Olympics’ team competition, which is given to the top 12 countries in the 2007 world championships. This is the fifth consecutive time since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics that Korea will compete in the Olympics.

The team comprising six members, Yang Tae-yeong, Yang Tae-seok, Yoo Won-cheol (POSCO Engineering and Construction Co.), Kim Dae-eun (South Jeolla Provincial Government), Kim Soo-myeon (Korea National Sport University), fought against the host Germany in the final group of preliminary matches.

On September 6, Korea will challenge its record performance of world No. 5 – a feat achieved in the 1999 Tianjin championships.

hic@donga.com