(LEAD) (Olympics) S. Korea wins bronze in judo mixed team event

South Korea defeated Germany for the bronze medal in judo's mixed team event at the Paris Olympics on Saturday. This was South Korea's fifth medal in judo in the French capital, after two silver medals and two bronze medals in individual events. With the score tied at 3-3 after six matches involving three male and three female judokas each, the teams went to a sudden-death match in the men's -73-kilogram division after it was randomly selected. An Baul then defeated Igor Wandtke after the German received his third and final "shido," or warning, at the 5:25 mark. The mixed team event made its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, with the -73kg, -90kg and +90kg divisions for men and -57kg, -70kg and +70kg for women. In the bronze medal contest, all four individual medalists for South Korea were in action: Lee Joon-hwan (-90kg) and Kim Min-jong (+90kg) for men, and Huh Mimi (-57kg) and Kim Ha-yun (+70kg) for women. Lee lost the opening match to Eduard Trippel. But then Kim Ha-yun, Kim Min-jong and Huh all won their matches to give South Korea a 3-1 lead. An then lost to Wandtke in a grueling match that lasted more than nine minutes. Kim Ji-su then lost her women's -70kg match to Miriam Butkereit to allow Germany to tie the match score at 3-3. An and Wandtke went back at it after their weight class was selected for the "decision contest." An withstood early pressure from Wandtke and was awarded the decisive win when Wandtke was penalized for non-combativity. Source: Yonhap News Agency