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South Korea's Seo Geon-woo competes against Denmark's Eddie Hrncih in the men's 80-kilogram taekwondo bronze medal match at the Grand Palais in Paris during the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 9, local time. (Yonhap) |
South Korea came within a win of collecting its third straight taekwondo medal on Friday, with Seo Geon-woo losing in the bronze medal match of the men's -80-kilogram event.
No other South Korean athlete came close to contending for a medal on this day, as the competition heads into its final weekend.
South Korea's gold medal tally remained at 13, tied for its record for the Summer Games.
Earlier on Friday, Seo seemed to be on his way to delivering the record-breaking gold medal. But after winning his first two matches, Seo lost to Mehran Barkhordari of Iran 2-1 (2-4, 13-9, 12-8) in the semifinals.
A few hours later, in one of two bronze medal contests, Seo lost to Edi Hrnic of Denmark 2-0 (15-2, 11-8).
In modern pentathlon on Friday, two South Korean teammates, Jun Woong-tae and Seo Chang-wan, advanced to the final of the men's competition.
Jun (1,515 points) and Seo (1,503 points) finished second and fifth in Group B of the semifinals, with the top nine from Groups A and B qualifying for Saturday's final.
Jun, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist, will try to win his second straight medal. Seo will be going for his first medal in his Olympic debut.
In diving, Shin Jung-hwi reached the semifinal of the men's 10m platform diving event after scoring 369.20 points to rank 17th among 26 divers in the preliminary. The top 12 divers in Saturday's semifinal will move on to the final.
Lee Hanbit lost to Luisa Niemesch of Germany 3-0 in the round of 16 of the women's 62kg freestyle wrestling on Friday. Lee gained a last-minute entry into the Olympics last week after Mun Hyon-gyong of North Korea withdrew, but couldn't capitalize on the unexpected opportunity.
Lee would have ended up in the repechage round if Niemesch had reached the final, but the German was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
In weightlifting, Yu Dong-ju finished sixth in the men's 89kg event with a total of 371kg. He lifted his personal-best 168kg in the snatch and added 203kg in the clean and jerk.
At his two previous Olympics, Yu had finished 14th in 2016 and eighth in 2021.
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