Jang Se-yoon Claims Valuable Silver Medal with Consecutive Ippon Wins in Debut

[Anchor]

South Korea's national judo team has also begun its medal hunt at the Nagoya Asian Games. In the women's 52kg division, Jang Se-yoon showcased a stunning streak of ippon victories in her very first Asian Games appearance to capture a valuable silver medal.

Reporter Pyeon Gwanghyeon has more.

[Reporter]

Making her Asian Games debut, 23-year-old Jang Se-yoon left a strong impression right from her opening match in the round of 16.

Just 16 seconds into the match, she secured an ippon victory over her Kyrgyzstani opponent with a lightning-fast inner thigh sweep (uchimata). In the quarterfinals, she took down China's Xu Xiaoyu with a foot sweep (deashi-harai) with 46 seconds remaining on the clock, claiming another ippon win.

The semifinals delivered a thrilling victory.

Engaged in a tense battle against Japan's title contender Fujishiro, both judokas traded two shido penalties each before heading into a gruelling golden score overtime period. Jang advanced via a hansoku-make (default win) after Fujishiro received her third penalty for a false attack.

The final against Uzbekistan's Kadamboyeva was a bittersweet finish.

Once again, the two competitors exchanged two shido penalties apiece before entering overtime.

Jang was penalized with her third shido for grabbing her opponent's trousers with her hand, resulting in a loss by hansoku-make.

Though she narrowly missed out on the gold, she adorned South Korea's first medal of the tournament in silver.

[Jang Se-yoon / National Judo Team: I thought to myself that aiming for the gold medal today was a real possibility and that I could actually win it, but it seems there are still many stronger opponents out there. I think I need to work harder, practice more, and return stronger.]

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Competing on the Asian Games stage for the first time at the age of 29 following the retirement of men's 66kg star Ahn Ba-ul, Kim Chan-nyung missed out on the podium after conceding a waza-ari to Bahrain's Bokiev in the bronze medal match.

Wiping away tears, Kim vowed to set his sights forward toward the Los Angeles Olympics.

[Kim Chan-nyung / National Judo Team: Following in the footsteps of (Ahn) Ba-ul, I wanted to show that our country still possesses strong competitiveness. With the LA Olympics as my goal, I will work harder so that I can eventually stand here for an interview wearing a medal.]

In sport climbing, Leedo won a silver medal in the men's bouldering event.

Having started on shaky ground after scoring zero points on the first of four boulder problems, he showed great resilience and finished second behind Japan's world number one Sorato Anraku.

Leedo will now chase another gold medal in the lead event, where he previously claimed victory at last year's World Championships.

(Video by Park Jung-sam)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.