Boccia’s mixed national team wins against Korea and Japan and wins 9 consecutive gold medals

Korea Boccia national team Howon Jeong, Yejin Choi and Hansoo Kim wrote a scene in history that will remain in the world at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

Ho-Won Jeong, Ye-Jin Choi and Han-Soo Kim, who participated in the Boccia BC3 Pair Final of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games held at the Ioriake Gymnastics Stadium in Tokyo on the 4th, scored 5-4 over Japan to score victory after overtime. In particular, the Korean national team washed away the disappointment of winning the silver medal against the ‘home team’ Brazil in the same event at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

The Boccia event, called ‘the archery of the Paralympic Games,’ also set a record that will remain long. Since the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, Boccia has won gold medals in all eight competitions, including Rio. The Korean national team also succeeded in gold hunting at the Paralympic Games and achieved a feat of gold medals in nine consecutive competitions.

Preemption point, but a crisis has come

Boccia’s BC3 grade, which rolls the ball close to the target ball using the gutter. The national team players who advanced to the semi-final race as 2nd place in the group by defeating England and Thailand in the pair qualifier held from the 2nd won the semi-final match against Hong Kong on the morning of the 5th with a score of 5-2 and advanced to the final. The opponent we met in the final was the home team, Japan.

The three athletes had competed in the same event together at the Rio Paralympic Games five years ago. The record at the time was a silver medal. Coincidentally, the players who met Brazil, the home team, in the final were defeated by a score of 5-2 and had to appease their disappointment. The players who reached the final again after 5 years had to meet the ‘home team’ again and play against their home advantage.

That’s how the first end started. In the first end, which started with Korea’s first strike, Jeong Ho-won’s pitch was brilliant. Coach Lee Moon-young and Howon Jeong, who played as a match partner, made a pleasant start when the last ball thrown in the 1st end hit a Korean ball and placed close to the target ball, and succeeded in scoring three points at once.

In the second end that followed, Choi Ye-jin acted as the solver. Choi Ye-jin threw 5 balls in a situation where several balls were crowded near the target ball. The ball thrown by Choi Ye-jin hit the target and stopped. As Ye-jin Choi’s good pitching resulted in a goal, Korea took the lead with a score of 4-0.

However, in the third end, the game went terribly. Japan seized the opportunity to score a lot and began to press Korea. An urgent situation followed, with South Korea using a single ball for defensive purposes. In the end, Japan’s last attack went in vain and was only chasing one point, but it was enough to cause a crisis in Ariake Stadium.

Japan, who had the target ball in the 4th end, also sent the target ball to the edge of the stadium to seize the opportunity to attack. While the Korean players could not get close to the ball, Japan succeeded in scoring a lot, making the score 4-4 at once. The match, in which Korea took the lead, went into overtime.

Dramatically in overtime… Continuing the gold medal record

▲ [패럴림픽] Korea’s second gold medal at Tokyo Games Choi Ye-jin, Jeong Howon, and Kim Han-soo of South Korea celebrate with gold medals around their necks at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Boccia Fair (BC3) awards ceremony held at Ariake Gymnastics Stadium in Tokyo, Japan on the afternoon of the 4th. In the BC3 class, where people with quadriplegia, including those with tetraplegia and cerebral palsy, who have difficulty throwing with their hands, participate, players use tools such as gutters and get help from their game partners. Kim Han-soo and Choi Ye-jin’s mothers were the match partners, and Jeong Howon was coached by Lee Mun-young. ⓒ Yonhap News

The tie-break, which started in the middle of the court, went against Korea in the beginning. The situation in which Japan put the ball close to the target ball. The solution was Choi Ye-jin. The ball pitched by Choi Ye-jin succeeded in getting close to the target ball and bringing the game to Korea.

Japan also tried to attack, but the first attack was unsuccessful, and even the second attack was also unsuccessful as the Korean ball jumped over it. In the third attack that followed, Japan attempted to aim at the target, but the target ball did not hit properly, and Korea still maintained the lead.

Japan’s fourth and final attack. I wondered if Japan’s last ball, which rolled slowly, was going in the direction of the target ball, but it was hit by a Korean ball and lost its power. South Korea, with one ball remaining, was able to secure the victory without one more pitch. It was the moment when South Korea’s second gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympic Games came out.

Immediately after the match, coach Lim Gwang-taek and coach Lee Mun-young lifted Jeong Ho-won and swabbed him. The athletes who continued their immortal record of winning nine consecutive gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, where they competed through difficulties such as Corona 19 and the midway return of their fellow athletes, congratulated each other and finished the tournament happily.

The medal ceremony was also impressive. Coach Lee Mun-young, who assisted Howon Jeong, in the match, Choi Ye-jin’s mother Woo-young Moon, who became the hands and feet of Choi Ye-jin, and Kim Han-soo’s mother, Yun Chu-ja, who became Kim Han-soo’s match partner, also won medals with the three players. thing. With everyone rejoicing, the national anthem was played at the Ariake Stadium, ending the campaign.

Meanwhile, at the end of the last match of the Korean players in this tournament, Korea succeeded in winning 2 gold medals, 10 silver medals, and 12 bronze medals. The images of the Paralympic athletes who moved their hearts in the 13-day fierce battle left a lasting impression and lingering impression on the people as much as the Olympics.

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