At the Gwangju Universiade which closes its 12-day run on July 14, a swimmer claimed four gold medals and an artistic gymnast hauled six medals. In addition, an archer established a new world record, while a female sprinter won both 100m and 200m for the first time in 28 years.
Shannon Vreeland
Swimmer Shannon Vreeland from the United States clinched four golds in the women’s 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100 freestyle relay and 4x200 freestyle relay.
Aside from the four victories, she took a bronze medal in the women’s 4x100 medley relay.
She was a gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, which she earned as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4x200m freestyle relay, together with Missy Franklin, Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt. The first-place Americans set a new Olympics record for the event with 7:42.92.
She also won gold medals in the 4x100m freestyle relay and 4x200m freestyle relay at the 2012 FINA World Short Course Championships.
Vreeland attends the University of Georgia and swims for Georgia Bulldogs swimming and diving team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association competitions. The 23-year-old is majoring in economics.
Oleg Verniaiev
Ukraine’s gymnast Oleg Verniaiev bagged the highest number of medals of six at the Gwangju Universiade.
His medal tally started when his gymnastics team took bronze in the men’s team on July 5.
On July 6, he won his first gold medal in Gwangju, presenting his high-end skills as the No. 1 ranked male gymnast and topped the men’s individual all-around.
On July 7, he added another gold medal in the parallel bars. Later in the day, he won a silver in the floor exercise and two bronze medals in the rings and the vault.
Son Yeon-jae
Son Yeon-jae from the Republic of Korea (ROK) showed her artistic and technical performance as a world-class rhythmic gymnast in Gwangju, clinching five medals.
She was ranked second in the individual medal tally among all athletes at this Universiade, taking three golds in the individual all-round, ball and hoop and two silvers in the clubs and ribbon.
Son marked the first Asian rhythmic gymnast to win gold in the all-around at the World Cup series and the first Korean to win gold at the Asian Games all-around segment of rhythmic gymnastics.
Born in Seoul in 1994, she gained great popularity among sports fans after bagging a bronze at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. She took a gold and a silver at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
Son is also known as one of the few Korean athletes, who is good in three foreign languages besides her mother tongue -- English, Japanese and Russian.
Yang Haoran
China’s Yang Haoran won five medals -- three golds, one silver and one bronze -- in men’s shooting.
Yang took three gold medals in the 10m air rifle team, 50m rifle 3 positions, 50m rifle 3 positions team. He added a silver in the 10m air rifle and a bronze in the 50m rifle prone.
At the age of 18, Yang brought his home country a gold medal in individual men’s 10m air rifle at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, also leading China to the team title in the event.
The young Chinese shooter was the champion of the 2013 ISSF World Cup in Munich.
Viktoriya Zyabkina
Sprinter Viktoriya Zyabkina from Kazakhstan has drawn attention by taking three golds in the women’s 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
She won the 100m final with 11.46 and won the 200m final with 22.77.
The 22-year-old became the first woman in 28 years to be a double gold medalist in the two sprint events of a Universade. The last woman to win both events at a past Universiade was Gwen Torrence of the United States in 1987.
Zyabkina has joined a select group of women who have achieved the feat -- Giuseppina Leone in 1959, Irena Szewinska in 1965, Renate Stecher in 1970, Mona-Lisa Pursiainen in 1973 and Torrence in 1987.
Ki Bo-bae
Archer Ki Bo-bae from the Republic of Korea (ROK) has become the only athlete to set a new world record in Gwangju. She took two gold and one silver medals at the Universiade.
Ki shattered an archery world record in a women’s recurve individual preliminary with a combined 686 out of the perfect 720 points, surpassing the previous record of 682 set by her compatriot Park Sung-hyun at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
She suffered from something of a post-2012 London Olympics hangover and did not qualify for the Korean team in 2014, instead acting as a sports analyst for national television covering the Archery World Cup circuit.
She watched her teammates set a new team qualifying record in Medellin that year. In early 2015, Ki recalled that watching the competitions from afar had strengthened her resolve and helped her rediscover what she needed to do.
By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)
