With the South Korean badminton team mired in a collective slump, it fell on Sung Ji-hyun, a women's singles player, to try and change the mood for the better with a win.And beating the world No. 1, Carolina Marin of Spain, in Tuesday's quarterfinals would have done the job, but Marin was too much for Sung to handle, as she prevailed 2-0 (21-12, 21-16) in just 45 minutes."I know we've not played well here, but I tried not to think too much about it," the emotional Sung said afterward. "I wanted

Time is running out for South Korea to meet its goal of winning 10 gold medals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.South Korean came up empty-handed Tuesday, and it hasn't won a gold since last Friday -- when Ku Bon-chan won the men's individual archery title. The country is sitting at six gold medals, along with three silver and five bronze medals. The closing ceremony for the Rio Games is Sunday.Struggles continued in Greco-Roman wrestling, where former world champion Ryu Han-su lost to Rasul Chuna

Korean Greco-Roman wrestling title hopeful Ryu Han-su came up short of a medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Tuesday.Park Hae-mook/The Korea HeraldRyu lost to Rasul Chunayev of Azerbaijan 8-0 in the bronze medal match for the men's 66kg event at Carioca Arena 2.The 2013 world champion had fallen to the third-place match after losing to Migran Arutyunyan of Armenia in the quarterfinals.When Arutyunyan reached the final, Ryu got a reprieve and entered repechage, where he needed to win two matc

The lone South Korean woman competing in badminton singles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics got knocked out of the quarterfinals on Tuesday.Sung Ji-hyun was no match against world No. 1 Carolina Marin, who dispatched the seventh-ranked South Korean 2-0 (21-12, 21-16).Park Hae-mook/The Korea HeraldSung dropped to 1-6 all-time against Marin.Sung was the only South Korean alive in the quarterfinals in the women's singles. Sung went down 6-1 to start the first game, but fought back to make it 8-6 for

The losing coach and captain of the South Korean Olympic women's volleyball team agreed subpar serve receive was their greatest undoing in the quarterfinals loss to the Netherlands on Tuesday.The Netherlands beat South Korea 3-1 (25-19, 25-14, 23-25,25-20) in a match that wasn't nearly as close as the set scores indicate. South Korea was often sloppy on both ends, and the Dutch, though shaky themselves at times, capitalized on it.South Korean captain Kim Yeon-koung, who led all players with 27 p

South Korean Olympic women's golf coach Pak Se-ri sounded confident in her team's medal chances on Tuesday, saying each one of her four players is peaking at the right time. Coach Park Se-ri (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)The World Golf Hall of Famer got in a practice round at the par-71 Olympic Golf Course with her players a day before the opening around. South Korea is represented by Park In-bee (world No. 5), Kim Sei-young (No. 6), Chun In-gee (No. 8) and Amy Yang (No. 9).They have combined

The teams traded points early on, before the Netherlands started to pull ahead. Up 8-7, Lonneke Sloetjes and Judith Pietersen went to work on offense and staked the Dutch to a 17-11 lead.Sloetjes, who scored nine points in the opening set alone, was too much for South Korea, and soon it was 23-16 for the Netherlands.Park Hae-mook/The Korea HeraldSouth Korea made a late push with three straight points before Sloetjes' spike and Pietersen's ace ended the set for the Netherlands at 25-19.Tied at 3-

 A ban on two South Korean Greco-Roman wrestling coaches was partially  lifted on Tuesday, allowing one of them to take his usual seat by the mat for competitions.Coach An Han-bong (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)Coach Park Chi-ho (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)Head coach An Han-bong and his assistant Park Chi-ho were sanctioned on Sunday for going up on the mat in protest of a call during a round-of-16 match between South Korean Kim Hyeon-woo and Roman Vlasov of Russia in the men's 75kg. The S

Taekwondo and women's golf, in which South Korea is counting on multiple medals, will get underway on Wednesday.A pair of two-time world champions will be in action in taekwondo: Kim Tae-hun in the men's 58kg and Kim So-hui in the women's 49kg.Kim Tae-hun won the 2013 and 2015 world titles in addition to the 2014 Asian Games gold medal and the 2014 Asian championship. An Olympic gold is the only missing piece in his glowing resume.Kim So-hui was a teenage sensation when she won her first world c

A close aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Choe Ryong-hae, did not meet with Brazil's interim President Michel Temer during his stay in Rio de Janeiro, a U.S.-based media report said Tuesday, in another testimony to North Korea's false report of Choe's activities there.The Voice of America  quoted former Brazilian Ambassador to North Korea Roberto Colin as saying that Choe and Temer never met.Brazil's interim president Michel Temer (AP Yonhap)On Aug. 5, Pyongyang's state-run Korean Central

Park Hae-mook/The Korea HeraldThe last South Korean badminton doubles team in play at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics lost its knockout match on Tuesday.Jung Kyung-eun and Shin Seung-chan were eliminated in the semifinals of the women's doubles, as the No. 1-ranked Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan beat them 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).The No. 5-ranked tandem from South Korea was the last remaining doubles pair for the country in Rio. On Monday, two men's doubles teams, including the top-ranked d