The nation has had some sleepless nights these past few days.

Past midnight on Aug. 11 here at home, good news came from Rio de Janeiro, where the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are in full swing. Korean shooter Jin Jongoh claimed the gold medal in the men’s 50-meter pistol finals after an unbelievable turnaround in the earlier rounds.

The gold medalist remained in fourth and fifth place after eight shots earlier in the match against eight finalists. His ninth shot, out of a total of 20, scored only 6.6 points, moving the shooter down into seventh place. However, with his tenth shot, Jin scored resuscitating 9.6 points. He inched even higher with his 11th and 12th shots, scoring 10.4 and 10.3 points each, launching him straight to third place. The shooter was still trailing the front runner, however, Hoang Xuan Vinh of Vietnam, by 3.5 points. With only six shots remaining, it seemed hopeless for the South Korean to catch up. However, Jin maintained his composure and concluded an improbable rally.



With his 15th and 16th shots, scoring 10.5 and 10.0 points respectively, Jin was in second place with his North Korean counterpart Kim Song-guk. He then shot his 17th and 18th bullets scoring 10.4 and 10.2 points, narrowing the gap with Hoang, who was still in first place, to only 0.2 points. With only two remaining bullets, the South Korean shooter scored 10.0 with his first shot, while Hoang managed only an 8.5. This was the moment when Jin took the lead. He closed out the match with 9.3 points in his final shot, giving him a total of 193.7 points, defeating the Vietnamese Olympian who finished with 191.3 points. With the victory, Jin has now become the first shooter to win gold in a single's shooting event at three consecutive Olympic Games, and to win a medal of any color in the 50-meter pistol shooting at four consecutive Olympic Games.

The South Korean men’s football team, too, advanced to the quarterfinals, beating the powerful defending Mexican team. In game three of Group C that took place at 4 a.m. Korea-time that same day, Team Korea faced challenging moments against Mexico’s formidable attacks from the very start. In the second half, Mexico’s offence got stronger, as a mid-range shot bounced off the goal post and a head shot went wide over the post.

South Korean midfielder Kwon Chang-hoon emerged as the game changer for the team, however. Thirty-two minutes into the second half, the midfielder finally netted the winning goal, when he seized the chance to shoot a loose ball from a corner kick with his left foot with all his might.



The 1-0 victory led Team Korea to the quarterfinals as the Group C winner with two wins and one tie. The national football team has now reached the quarterfinals for the second Olympics in a row, following the London 2012 Summer Olympics where they won a bronze medal. On Aug. 14, the team will face Honduras for a ticket to the semifinal.

Back in South Korea, at daybreak early on Aug. 10, another piece of gold news arrived from Brazil. A 20-year-old epee fencer, Park Sang-young, won gold in the finals against Geza Imre of Hungary, 15-14. The gold was a first in Korean fencing history. Park ranked 21st in the world rankings, while his Hungarian rival was third in the world.

In the final set, Park was down 14-10, a point away from defeat. However, he never gave up and kept talking to himself, “I can do it, I can do it.” He really did it, too, as he scored five points in a row, an unimaginable achievement in fencing, winning the first gold medal in Korea’s epee fencing history.





By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Yonhap News
jiae5853@korea.kr