'Dream Stage, Happy' Paralympics Squad 19-year-old youngest Seo Min-gyu, Boccia's first individual victory
Aug 30, 2024
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The youngest member of the South Korean team, who said he was "happy" just by participating in the Paralympics, won the first round of the individual competition. It became 'double happiness'. Seo Min-gyu (19, Ansan Sports Council for the Disabled), a representative player of Boccia at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, made the winning report.
In the afternoon of the 29th (Korea Standard Time), Seo Min-kyu won the first round of the Boccia Men's Individual (BC2) Group B qualifying round 5-2 against Rombauts Francis of Belgium. Seo Min-gyu, who secured one win, aims to advance to the quarterfinals tournament through the second and third rounds of the group qualifying round on the 30th. The first and second-ranked players of each group will advance to the quarterfinals.
Boccia is a game in which six red and blue balls are pitched to one white target, respectively. Score as many balls as the number of balls closer to the target ball than the opponent's ball. The individual matches add up to the fourth end.
Seo Min-kyu, who caught the red ball, played with a careful pitch from the first end, but faced a crisis as several blue balls of the opponent surrounded the target. The strategy of hitting the target with the last 6th ball was right. Seo Min-kyu quickly moved his target to the area where his red ball was concentrated and won two points first.
Seo Min-gyu, who succeeded in taking the lead, added points in the second and third ends to run to 5-0 and took the lead early. In the final fourth end, he gave up two points, but the hero of the victory did not change.
Born in 2005, Seo Min-kyu is the youngest and the only teenage player in the Korean team. After the game, Seo Min-kyu, who met in the mixed zone (joint coverage area), said "Not only me, the youngest, but all the players will feel the same way. It is meaningful to be a Korean boccia player in itself."
Whenever a satisfactory play came out during the game, Seo Min-kyu cheered up by shouting 'Fighting' with his fist clenched. It reminds me of Kim Je-deok (Archery), who showed the spirit of a teenager during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Seo Min-gyu himself also liked the appearance of Kim Je-deok at that timeIt was also burdensome because it was the first game of the tournament to represent Korea. I thought I should bring the atmosphere by shouting fighting for myself. In the rest of the game, I think we need to ease the tension and compensate for the lack of concentration in the second half."
Jung Sung-joon (46, Gyeonggi-do Provincial Boccia Federation), who played in the first Group C qualifying match for the men's individual (BC1), lost 3-7 to Witanu Hurdprady (Thailand). Jung Ho-won (38, Gangwon-do Provincial Sports Council for the Disabled), a member of the Boccia national team who competed in the fifth Paralympic Games, beat Romero Jeju (Colombia) 12-2 in the first round of the men's individual BC3 Group C qualifying round. South Korea's Boccia is trying to win its 10th consecutive gold medal at the Paris Paralympics.
wman@sportschosun.com
