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South Korea Seeks First Ever Team Medal at Gymnastics Worlds
South Korea was on its way to win its first ever men's team medal at the World Gymnastics Championships as it placed third after the qualifying competition.
South Korea led the qualifying round before Belarus and the United States took over the top two spots last night with a total of 220.857 points. Its rank did not change after the 10th and last subdivision finished late afternoon on Monday.
Han Yoon-Soo, a coach from South Korea, said:" We are happy about our performance in the qualifier last night and hopefully we can win our first team medal at this world championships."
South Korea placed fifth two years ago at the same event, behind China, Russia, Belarus and Japan and a distant 14th in Lausanne in 1997.
With the help of its three Olympians, including Lee Joo-Hyung, Sydney silver medalist on parallel bars and third place winner on high bar, South Korea has the reason to make their dream come true.
"It's a new world of gymnastics, with new faces, new Code of Points and new format of the competition. So it's a chance for us to win a team medal," said Han, who is a former two-time Olympian.
Han cited that the pace-setter Belarus is in a class of their own, and the battle between Russia, Ukraine, the United States and themselves will be very close.
"It will be a narrow margin between the top eight teams. I just hope we can perform well and reach the awarding podium."
Romania, China and France also earned spots in the men's team final.
Besides the favorable team performance, Tang Tae-Young finished fifth and Kim Dong-Hwa seventh in the all-around competition while the latter earned two apparatus finals spots on high bar and rings, also boosted the team for more individual success.
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