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Summary South Korea picked up its 10th gold medal in men's shooting at London Olympics Sunday.
Jin Jong-oh was the winner of the 50-meter pistol event for the countrys 10th gold. The countrys stated goal at these Olympics was to win at least 10 gold medals for a top-10 finish in the medal table.The London Olympics wraps up in a weeks time, and South Korea has set its sights on surpassing the record 13 gold medals won in Beijing four years ago.South Korea stumbled out of the gate. Despite rosy predictions of up to four gold medals on the opening weekend, Jin ended up the only gold medal winner in 10m air pistol. Swimmer Park Tae-hwan took silver in the 400-meter freestyle on July 28 after a debacle surrounding his false start disqualification. The favored mens archery team fell to the U.S. in the semis and got the bronze. Judoka Wang Ki-chun, ranked No. 1 in his weight class, missed the podium.The goal momentarily appeared out of reach when even more officiating controversies from mens judo and womens fencing threatened to further distract the entire delegation. But on Aug. 1, South Korea enjoyed three gold medals, two -- Kim Ji-yeon in womens sabre fencing and Song Dae-nam in mens judo -- from unexpected sources.Fencers, emboldened by the dispute surrounding their epee teammate Shin A-lam, went on a tear. The mens sabre team also grabbed gold after Kim Ji-yeon. Ki Bo-bae won the womens individual archery gold after helping South Korea to the team gold earlier, and Oh Jin-hyek grabbed the countrys first mens individual archery gold.Then on Sunday, Jin was on target for the 10th gold. Being the first and the 10th gold medalist, Jin said, was a great honor.Yoo Jeong-hyeong, head of training planning at the Korean Olympic Committee, said even more gold medals are in the offing for South Korea. The mens football shocked Britain in penalty shootout to advance to the semifinals for the first time, and taekwondo, where South Korea earned four gold medals in Beijing, will start Wednesday.We missed out on some events where we expected to win gold, but shooters and fencers more than made up for that, Yoo said. We will try our best the rest of the way and match our record haul from Beijing.
