The day began with much promise, but South Korea ended up with two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, the penultimate day of the competition, unable to add a gold medal to break its Summer Games record. South Korea defeated Germany for the bronze medal in the women's table tennis team competition. The trio of Shin Yu-bin, Jeon Ji-hee and Lee Eun-hye beat Shan Xiaona, Wan Yuan and Annett Kaufmann by 3-0, after winning one doubles and two singles matches in succession. Shin and Jeon beat Wan and Shan in the opening doubles match 3-2 (11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 10-12, 11-8). Lee then beat Kaufmann 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-2) in the singles, before Jeon got past Shan 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-6) in the singles, too. This was South Korea's second medal in the women's team event since the bronze medal in 2008. Shin, who had earlier won the mixed doubles bronze, became the first South Korean table tennis player in 32 years to win multiple medals at an Olympics. The ping pong medal was bookended by Lee Da-bin's bron ze in the women's +67-kilogram taekwondo event in the evening in the French capital. The 2021 Olympic silver medalist once again fell short of the ultimate prize, following a loss to Svetlana Osipova of Uzbekistan in the semifinals. Lee went on to defeat Lorena Brandl of Germany in the bronze medal match for South Korea's third medal in its traditional martial art. In between table tennis and taekwondo events, other South Korean medal hopefuls missed the podium entirely. South Korea remained at 13 gold medals, tied with the record set in 2008 and matched four years later. Woo Sang-hyeok finished a disappointing seventh in the men's high jump final at 2.27 meters. He failed to clear 2.31m in three attempts to get knocked out of the competition earlier than expected. Woo has a season-best mark of 2.33m. In the men's modern pentathlon, the 2021 bronze medalist Jun Woong-tae finished in sixth place. He was in third place at the start of the laser run, the final leg of the event that combines running and laser pistol shooting, but a series of miscues in shooting cost Jun a shot at his second straight medal. There was also a close call in women's golf, where LPGA Tour veteran Amy Yang finished just one shot out of a bronze medal playoff at six-under. She lined up a 20-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole at Le Golf National, south of Paris, but missed it by several inches. Lydia Ko of New Zealand, a South Korean native, won the gold medal in her third try. She had won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021. In sport climbing, medal hopeful Seo Chae-hyun finished sixth in the women's combined event with 105.0 points, with 28.9 points from bouldering and 76.1 points from lead. She ranked last among eight finalists in bouldering and had the fourth-highest score in lead, though that was not enough to push her to the podium. The two bronze medals Saturday gave South Korea 30 medals overall. The country's all-time record for a Summer Games is 33, won as the host of the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. South Korea has a mathematical shot of matching that on Sunday before the closing ceremony. The country will have two athletes in the modern pentathlon final Sunday, with the reigning world champion Seong Seung-min and teammate Kim Sun-woo both making it out of the semifinals Saturday. Park Hye-jeong will compete in the women's +81kg weightlifting event as a strong medal contender. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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