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South Korea did not pick up a medal at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, only the second time the country failed to add to its tally since the race began on July 27.
Instead, both the men’s and women’s table tennis teams progressed to the next stages in their competition, as did two male divers. A Greco-Roman wrestler ended up in the repechage round where he will try to salvage a bronze medal despite losing his very first match of the Olympics.
The women’s team of Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye defeated Sweden 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Shin and Jeon teamed up for a doubles win, and Lee and Jeon each won a singles match.
They put South Korea within a win of its first medal in the event since 2008.
A victory in the semifinals — with world No. 1 China being the likely opponent — will guarantee South Korea at least the silver medal. A loss in the semis will send South Korea to the bronze medal match.
Earlier in the day, the men’s team of Jang Woo-jin, Cho Dae-seong and Lim Jong-hoon defeated Croati
a 3-0 in the round of 16.
Next up in the quarterfinals on Wednesday will be world No. 1 China. South Korea’s lat men’s team medal was the silver in 2012.
The team events in table tennis were added to the Olympics in 2008, and China has every men’s and women’s gold medal so far.
Divers Woo Haram and Yi Jae-gyeong both reached the semifinal in the men’s 3-meter springboard event. Woo scored 389.10 points to finish 12th among 25 divers, while Yi was four spots behind with 381.40 points, safely inside the top 18.
The semifinal is Wednesday, and the top 12 will qualify for Thursday’s final.
Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun ranked 13th in the bouldering semifinal of the women’s combined event with 44.2 points. She will try to make up some ground in the lead semifinal Thursday and finish inside the top eight to qualify for the final.
Seo is world No. 3 in lead and No. 18 in bouldering.
In Greco-Roman wrestling, Kim Seung-jun lost to Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia in the round of 16 in the men’s 97-kilogram event. But
Kim got a second life when Aleksanyan, the reigning silver medalist, reached the final. It meant all three losers against Aleksanyan on his way to the final ended up in the repechage round for Wednesday.
Kim will face the quarterfinal loser, Rustam Assakalov of Uzbekistan. The winner of that match will meet the semifinal loser, Gabriel Rosillo of Cuba, in one of two bronze medal matches.
Lee Seung-chan in the men’s 130kg Greco-Roman event went through the same journey as Kim earlier — losing in the round of 16 but ending up in the repechage round when Mijain Lopez of Cuba, who beat Lee in the round of 16, advanced to the final.
Lee, however, couldn’t take advantage, as he lost to Amin Mirzazadeh of Iran 9-0 on Tuesday.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
