Korea reaches gold medal milestone thanks to fencing, archery

It was a day of milestones for South Korea at the London Olympics on Friday.

Archer Oh Jin-hyek won the country's first Olympic gold medal in men's individual archery. The male sabre fencers then grabbed gold for the country's first fencing team medal for men.

The fencers' gold medal was No. 100 for South Korea in its Olympic history, covering both Winter and Summer Games. The country hit the century mark in a place where it all started: the 1948 London Olympics was the first Summer Games South Korea under its own flag.

Entering the second weekend of the Olympics, South Korea has earned nine gold medals, only one shy of its stated goal of 10. The country is expected to earn more gold medals in upcoming events such as taekwondo, artistic gymnastics and wrestling.

At ExCeL Arena, South Korea enjoyed yet another podium finish in fencing. Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jung-hwan and Won Woo-young, plus substitute Oh Eun-seok teamed up to defeat Romania 45-26.

South Korea started out hot, and led 15-10 after three individual bouts. Romania closed the gap to within 16-15 but then the champions went on a 29-11 run for the dominating victory.

Fencers have been the biggest contributors to South Korea's medal tally in London, winning two gold and three bronze medals.

They have rallied around their epee teammate Shin A-lam, who earlier lost her individual semifinal bout against Britta Heidemann of Germany under disputed circumstances that led to strong South Korean protests. All five medals have come after Shin's defeat on July 30.

Shin will enter the epee team competition Saturday for her second shot at a medal.

Earlier Friday at Lord's Cricket Ground, Oh also enjoyed a breezy victory. He handily defeated Takaharu Furukawa of Japan by the set score of 7-1 in the final, stringing together three straight scores of 29, one off the maximum. Oh closed out the lopsided win with his seventh perfect 10 of the match.

Oh is a late bloomer who made the Olympic team for the first time at age 30. He said his career is just taking off.

"I didn't get to do much in my 20s, and I want to make up for that time in my 30s," Oh said. "I've been going to the national team trials since before the Sydney Olympics. My first dream was just to compete at the Olympics, never mind winning a gold medal.

My hard work has been rewarded and it's a great honor."

Oh capped off yet another dominant Olympic archery tournament for South Korea. For the fourth time, the country grabbed three out of four archery gold medals available.

Elsewhere, Park Tae-hwan, the one man wrecking crew for South Korean swimming, will try to win his third medal in London and join archers and fencers in the history-making department.

He qualified for the 1,500m freestyle final on Friday. His time of 14 minutes and 56.89 seconds placed him sixth among eight finalists. It will be his first 1,500m final at the Olympics.

Having already won silver medals in the 200m and 400m free, Park can become the first South Korean athlete to capture three medals at a single Olympics. A 1,500m medal would also make him just the second swimmer ever to reach the podium for 200m, 400m, and 1,500m free at the same Olympics, after Daniel Kowalski of Australia in 1996.

Park said he harbored no illusions about trying to win the long-distance final, which is set for Saturday. Park said Sun Yang, the world record holder from China, is in a league of his own.

"He is just so great that I think the gold is his to lose,"

Park said. "This will be my last race here, and so it'd be great to close out my Olympics with a medal." (Yonhap News)