He also announced the KOC will award 50,000 U.S. dollars to the South Korean athlete who wins a gold medal in Beijing, while silver medallists will receive 25,000 dollars and those who win bronze are to receive 15,000 dollars.

"We have decided to raise the amount drastically because we are expecting intense competition between our athletes and Chinese rivals," further explained Choi Jong-hark, who takes charge of sporting affairs at the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture, referring to the fact that the financial rewards for medal winners are to be more than double those given for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

South Korea has earned berths in 25 sports with 267 athletes having qualified for the Olympics, as archery, weightlifting, judo and taekwondo are among the country's traditional medal hopefuls and swimming might offer a breakthrough victory for the Koreans.

Teenage sensation Park Tae Hwan has emerged as a fast rising star in pool as the 18-year-old upset defending champion Grant Hackett to win the men's 400m freestyle at last year's world championships in Melbourne and has since set a new Asian record of three minutes and 43.59 seconds.

He will eye on beating Ian Thorpe's world record of 3:40.08 set in 2002 for a Beijing Olympic victory and try to pocket the very first swimming gold for his country while swimming in the Speedo LZR swimsuit, the latest technology.

"I expect to see the winning time around three minutes and 40 seconds," said Park's coach Noh Min Sang. "It won't go past the 41-second mark."

In taekwondo, the sport they invented, Koreans are no doubt the favorites and will be spearheaded by Hwang Kyung Seon, two-time world champion in the women's under-67kg.

However, the days have gone when Koreans won everything in each taekwondo tournament. Hosts China have posed as the serious challenge-makers with twice Olympic champion Chen Zhong in the women's over-67kg and world champion Wu Jingyu in the women's 49 kg.

Same discomfiture faces the South Korean archery team, which took three out of four gold medals in last year's world championships but lost to China in the women's team final of the 2007 World Cup.

South Korea has won 14 of 22 archery golds on offer since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and will push hard in Beijing for golds of the team events as well as the women's individual against the daunting hosts Chinese, Italians and French.

Park Sung Hyun, a double gold winner in Athens, and Olympic debutant Yoon Ko Hee will lead the women's squad, while world champion Im Dong Hyun takes the best chance to end the country's drought in the men's individual title.

Triple world championship winner Jang Mi Ran leads South Korea's request for a weightlifting Olympic gold in the women's over-75kg category, as she recently set a new world training record after lifting 330kg while her greatest rival Mu Shuangshuang has been excluded from China's Olympic roster.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2008)