(Universiade) S. Korea flexes muscles in archery, judo to lead medal race

By Yoo Jee-ho and Park Sojung

GWANGJU, July 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea flexed serious muscles in archery and judo at the Summer Universiade on Tuesday, as the host nation remains anything but hospitable to its competition.

South Korea swept up four out of five gold medals at stake in compound archery, while earning three out of four judo titles available. Add two medals from taekwondo's poomsae, and South Korea sits pretty at the top of the medal standings with 19 gold medals.

In compound archery, Kim Jong-ho emerged as the country's first triple gold medalist. He was the part of the team gold medal and then got the mixed event gold. Finally, he beat his teammate Kim Tae-yoon for the individual gold medal.

Song Yun-soo won two gold medals -- the mixed event title and then the individual one.

South Korea is far from done: it has reached the finals in all five recurve events scheduled for Wednesday.

The country had set out to grab five gold medals in archery and nearly matched that total Tuesday alone.

South Korea surpassed its judo gold medal target of five by winning three titles on Tuesday. Jeong Bo-kyeong in the women's under-48㎏, Kim Won-jin in the men's under-60㎏, Kim Ji-youn in the women's open weight class were the day's three champions.

South Korea has bagged eight out of 16 possible judo gold medals, with the men's and women's team events remaining Wednesday.

Taekwondo, the traditional Korean martial art, got under way Tuesday with poomsae, or the demonstrative competition, and Bae Jong-beom and Yang Han-sol won the men's and women's individual gold medals.

In fencing, South Korea added a bronze in the men's sabre team event. It has one gold, one silver and four bronze medals in fencing so far.

Kim Mi-so won the silver medal in the women's 50ｍ rifle prone event, giving South Korea its seventh medal from the sport.

Elsewhere Tuesday, the men's football team defeated Canada 3-1 to reach the quarterfinals with a perfect record in group stage. South Korea will take on Uruguay in the knockout round on Thursday.

The mixed badminton team defeated Germany to reach the semifinals, where it will face Malaysia on Wednesday.

jeeho@yna.co.kr

sojungpark@yna.co.kr
(END)