Rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae takes silver in ball at Universiade

South Korean rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae took the silver medal in the ball discipline at the ongoing Summer Universiade here on Tuesday.

Son is the first South Korean to claim an individual medal in rhythmic gymnastics at the multi-sport competition for university athletes. She earned 18.000 points, finishing 0.233 of a point behind the gold medalist, Alexandra Merkulova of Russia.

On Monday, Son had finished sixth in the all-around individual final, coming up short in her first bid to win an individual Universiade medal.

Son, the reigning Asian champion in the all-around competition, ranked fifth in clubs and seventh in ribbon disciplines later on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the Universiade, Lim Yong-kyu defended the men's singles tennis title. He defeated Antso Rakotondramanga of Madagascar 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Lim joined Noh Sang-woo and Lee Jea-moon for the gold medal in the team competition. Lim had also won two gold medals at the previous Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.

Through Tuesday, South Korea is in fourth place on the medal table with 17 gold medals and 40 medals in total. Host Russia has overwhelmed the competition with 151 gold medals and 285 medals overall.

Japan and China are tied with 24 gold medals apiece, but Japan holds an edge in the total medal tally, 84 to 73.

The Universiade will run through Wednesday. (Yonhap News)