Fencer Kim Young-ho, 29, won Korea's first-ever Olympic gold medal in fencing, defeating the world's number one, Ralf Bissdorf of Germany 15-14 in the men's foil championship match in Sydney on Wednesday. Kim had held the lead at 13-10 and then at 14-11 before making three consecutive errors for a 14-14 tie with the world champion. However, Kim's desire to win helped him to mark a point on his opponent's neck. A red light came on the scoreboard, Kim fell on his knees and his coach came out to embrace the man who had won the first gold medal ever for Korean fencing and the second gold for Korea at the Sydney Olympics. On his way to capturing the gold, Kim also defeated eventual bronze medallist in the men¡¯s foil event, Dmitri Chevchenko of Russia, 15-14 in the semi-finals.

Kim first started fencing 15 years ago at the age of 14 while attending Yeonsan Middle School in Nonsan, South Chungchong Province. His gym teacher noticed that Kim was a good runner and one day asked if he would like to try fencing. Nine years later, Kim won his first international prize, a bronze medal at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. At the 1997 World Championships held in South Africa, Kim captured the silver medal and emerged as a strong international competitor. Right after the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, however, he received a 2-inch cut on a lung and went through a major surgery that kept him away from fencing for 7 months. Despite this ordeal, Kim made it through rehabilitation training to finish third in the 1999 World Championships, and also win the 1999 Austria International Championships, 1999 Iran International Championships and the 2000 Daewoo Grand Prix.

(Min Hak-soo, haksoo@chosun.com)