Korea pick up three more medals at Paris Paralympics

Team Korea added three more medals on Sunday at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games to bring their total medal count to 13 as of press time Monday.

Badminton players Jeong Jae-gun, right, and Yu Soo-young celebrate during the men's doubles final at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games against Mai Jianpeng and Qu Zi Mo of China in Paris on Sunday. [NEWS1]

Team Korea added three more medals on Sunday at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games to bring their total medal count to 13 as of press time Monday.

Badminton duo Jeong Jae-gun and Yu Soo-young claimed a silver medal after losing the men's doubles final 2-0 to Mai Jianpeng and Qu Zi Mo of China on Sunday, while Jeong So-yeong secured silver and Kang Sun-hee bronze in boccia on the same day.

The badminton duo’s silver comes in Jeong Jae-gun’s first Paralympics at the age of 47, making him the oldest Korean badminton player at this year’s tournament.

The silver is Korea’s first medal in badminton this year, with single matches still to take place as of press time.

Over in boccia, Jeong So-yeong faced Cristina Goncalves of Portugal in the women’s individual BC2 final and lost 4-1 to take silver, while Kang beat Evani Calado of Brazil 7-2 in the BC3 bronze medal match to secure bronze.

Jeong So-yeong competes in the women’s individual BC2 boccia event at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games in Paris on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Boccia is similar to the winter Olympic sport of curling in which players throw six balls at a white target ball called the jack, and the team, pair or individual that finishes with the ball closest to the jack score at each end.

There are a total of seven events depending on physical impairment and number of players. Six Koreans are up for a medal quest this year, two each in the BC1, BC2 and BC3 sport classes.

Jeong and Kang’s medals are Korea’s first medals in the sport that the country has traditionally excelled at. Korea has won 10 gold medals in boccia, having won gold at the last nine Paralympics since the 1988 Seoul Games.

The Korean women’s goalball team, meanwhile, secured a place in the quarterfinals after a 0-0 draw with Canada in their last group stage game, also on Sunday.

This year marks Korea’s fourth time competing at the Games and first time doing so since 2012. A medal at this year’s Paralympics would mark the second time in a row the team has medalled at a major international tournament, having taken bronze at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games.

Goalball is played by two teams of three players on the same size court as volleyball. Teams roll a ball containing bells at high speeds toward a court-wide goal, with defending players throwing themselves in front of the ball in an attempt to stop it. Each game is played over two 12-minute halves and spectators have to stay completely silent.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]