South Korea eye hockey, taekwondo gold

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Sydney: South Korea seek to extend their domination in the debut sport of taekwondo on Saturday, with Kim Kyong-Hun looking for an Olympic gold in the 80 kg class.

Korea will also be looking to upset defending champions the Netherlands in the final of the men's hockey on the penultimate day of the Sydney Olympics.

Taekwondo, an ancient martial art which resembles karate but focuses on kicks with bare feet, is Korea's national sport, and the Koreans have picked up two golds and a silver in the three weight classes in which they have competed so far.

The 25-year-old Kim notched an easy win over Khalid Al-Dorasi of Saudi Arabia in his opening 80 kg bout to advance to the quarter-finals.

In the women's heaviest division -- 67 kg -- China's Chen Zhong beat Australia's Tanya White in the first round. China have yet to pick up a taekwondo medal.

The Netherlands, who also won the Champions Trophy in June, are slightly favoured in the hockey final but the Koreans are coming off a strong showing in the semi-finals, where they outran Pakistan 1-0.

The Pakistanis play hosts Australia for the bronze, an improvement over the sixth place finish in Atlanta which was their worst ever Olympic outing.

South Korea have won seven golds so far, the same as in Atlanta, but are far behind Asian neighbours China with 26 -- 10 more than they won four years ago.

Japan have five golds, two more than in Atlanta.

China look set to add another gold on Saturday after Tian Liang and Hu Jia outperformed reigning champion Dmitry Sautin in the preliminaries of the men's highboard.

Hu will carry over 206.61 points into the final, while Tian will be second with 201.45, compared to Sautin's 190.92.

A win by either would give China their fifth diving title of the Sydney Olympics.



(c) Reuters Limited.