Kim Hyun-soo celebrates after scoring in the ninth inning against Japan during a men's preliminaries baseball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on Saturday./REUTERS Korean Baseballers Reach Olympics Semifinal Promising Start for Korean Olympic Team Gold for Korean Archers as Olympic Medal Count Rises Sa Jae-hyouk Lifts Gold for Korea Unbeaten Koreans Advance to Baseball Semis Korea Goes for More Than 10 Golds at Beijing Olympics

Things are also going well for the Korean baseball team so far, which leads the pool with Cuba with four wins. The Koreans pulled off a dramatic 5-3 win against Japan on Saturday, and in the match against China, which was resumed on Sunday after it was postponed due to rain, Korea narrowly fought off China in the 11th inning with a score of 1-0.

The women’s handball team beat Hungary 33-22 on Sunday, and with the three wins, one draw and one loss, Korea secured second place in the Group B after Russia, which has four wins and one draw.

In the badminton men’s doubles, Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Ji-man also won bronze on Saturday, and the women’s table tennis team added another bronze after beating Japan 3-0 on Sunday. Boxer Kim Jung-joo, who won the 69-kg welterweight bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Games, secured at least a bronze medal as he advanced to the semifinals.

The final of the mixed doubles badminton competition at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium saw the two Lees, currently ranked no.10 in the world, beat world no.1 Liliyana Natsir and Nova Widianto of Indonesia 2-0 (21-11, 21-17) to climb to the top of the podium.

Jang Mi-ran tries a lift during women's +75kg competition of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games weightlifting event in Beijing on Friday. Jang set the new world record of women's +75kg with a total of 326kg and claimed the gold. /Xinhua

Jang was in a league of her own in the women’s +75 kg weightlifting competition, and established herself as one of the best athletes in the Olympics. In the Beijing University Aeronautics and Astronautic Gymnasium on Saturday, Jang set her first world record of the day by lifting 140 kg in her third attempt in the snatch. In the clean and jerk, she lifted 183 kg in her second attempt for her second world record, and went on to lift 186 kg in the third attempt. She broke the clean and jerk world record twice, and also the combined total twice.

North Korean artistic gymnast Hong Un-jong won the second gold medal for her country, in the women’s vault.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, South Korea is in sixth place in the medal count with eight gold, nine silver and five bronze medals.

(englishnews@chosun.com )