South Korea wasted no time getting on the board at the Paris Olympics, as it grabbed a gold, a silver and a bronze on the first day of competition following the opening ceremony Saturday. Oh Sang-uk soared to the gold medal in the men's individual sabre fencing event at Grand Palais in Paris, where he defeated Fares Ferjani of Tunisia 15-11. This gold medal stretched South Korea's streak of winning a gold on Day 1 to five consecutive Summer Olympic Games. The country's first medal came from the very first medal event of these Olympic Games, the 10-meter air rifle mixed team event. Park Ha-jun and Keum Ji-hyeon joined forces for the silver medal, after falling to Sheng Lihao and Huang Yuting of China 16-12 at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre in Chateauroux, south of Paris. Getting sandwiched between Oh's gold and the shooting silver was the bronze medal by swimmer Kim Woo-min in the men's 400m freestyle. He earned his first career Olympic medal with a time of 3:42.50, finishing behind Lukas Maertens of Ge rmany (3:41.78) and Elijah Winnington of Australia (3:42.21). Kim spent most of the race in second place behind Maertens before Winnington caught him over the final stretch for the silver. Kim is just the second South Korean swimmer, after Park Tae-hwan, to win an Olympic medal. Elsewhere at the Olympics on Saturday, Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin advanced to the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles in table tennis. They knocked off Dang Qiu and Nina Mittelham of Germany 4-0 (12-10, 11-9, 12-10, 11-6) in the round of 16 at South Paris Arena 4 in Paris. The third-seeded South Koreans won the match in just 34 minutes, after overcoming some shaky early moments. In Sunday's quarterfinals, Lim and Shin will face No. 7 seed Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania. South Korea was shut out on the first day of judo. In the men's -60kg, Kim Won-jin lost in the quarterfinals and then missed out on a chance at salvaging a bronze medal after falling to Giorgi Sardalashvili of Georgia in the repechage contest. T his was Kim's third and final crack at an Olympic medal. The 32-year-old, who had lost in the repechage in 2016 and in the bronze medal match in 2021, will undergo shoulder surgery and then begin a coaching career early next year. In the women's -48kg, Lee Hye-kyeong fell to Tara Babulfath of Sweden in the first round. In boxing, Oh Yeon-ji lost her opening match in the women's 60kg event, as she fell to Wu Shih Yi of Chinese Taipei 5-0 in the round of 32 at North Paris Arena. This was Oh's second consecutive opening-round exit in Olympics. Oh's elimination leaves Im Ae-ji in the women's 54kg as the only South Korean boxer in Paris. She earned a bye through the first round and will meet Tatiana Regina de Jesus Chagas of Brazil in the round of 16 on Tuesday. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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