(Olympics) S. Korea snaps up 2 gold medals to meet target after 3 days

PARIS, July 29 (Yonhap) -- Team Korea arrived at the Paris Olympics with an eye on winning five gold medals. And after only three days of competition, the country has met that mark.

South Korea collected two gold medals on Monday to reach five gold medals overall.

The first gold of the day was a historic one. Ban Hyo-jin won the women's 10-meter air rifle title, becoming the youngest Summer Olympic gold medalist ever for South Korea at 16 years, 10 months and 18 days old.

It was also South Korea's 100th gold medal in its Summer Games history.

Ban defeated Huang Yuting of China in a shoot-off, 10.4-10.3, after the two ended up tied at 251.8 points after 24 shots to tie the Olympic record.

Ban held a 1.3-point lead over Huang with two shots remaining, but the 17-year-old Chinese caught Ban to force the shoot-off. Ban regrouped in time to hold off Huang by the narrowest of margins.

It was South Korea's second gold medal in shooting at these Summer Games. And the country also earned its second archery gold medal in Paris on Monday, as the men's team defeated France in the final by the set score of 5-1.

Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok struck a perfect 10 on 14 of their 18 arrows in the final, overcoming a hostile French crowd at Invalides to give South Korea its third straight Olympic gold in the men's team event.

Also on Monday, Huh Mimi brought South Korea its first judo medal of the Paris Games, with the silver in the women's -57 kilograms.

She lost to Christa Deguchi of Canada in the final, after being called for her decisive third "shido," or a warning, for a false attack.

A native of Japan, Huh, who has a Korean father and a Japanese mother, has been competing for South Korea internationally since 2022 to honor a dying wish of her grandmother.

In table tennis, the mixed doubles team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin dropped to the bronze medal match, after losing to Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha of China 4-2 (6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9).

Lim and Shin, No. 3 seed, will face Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong in Tuesday's bronze medal contest. South Korea's lat table tennis medal came in 2012.

Choi Se-bin finished fourth in the women's individual sabre, after losing to Olga Kharlan of Ukraine 15-14 in the bronze medal match at Grand Palais.

Choi, world No. 24, shocked world No. 1 from Japan, Misaki Emura, 15-7 in the round of 16, and then defeated her teammate Jeon Ha-young 15-14 in the quarterfinals after rallying from an 8-1 deficit.

But Choi couldn't get past Manon Apithy-Brunet of France in the semifinals, and blew an 11-5 lead over Kharlan with the bronze medal on the line.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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