Yang Hak-seon of South Korea won his country’s first-ever Olympic gymnastics gold medal on Monday.

Yang posted an average score of 16.533 points after two attempts in the men’s vault final of the London 2012 Olympics. Denis Ablyazin of Russia placed second with 16.399 on average.

It is the first gymnastics gold medal for South Korea in the 52 years since its Olympic debut in Rome in 1960.

The country had won four silver and as many bronze medals before Yang.

In his first attempt, the 20-year-old pulled off his signature somersault called “the Yang Hak-seon.” He nailed the triple-twisting handspring front action to win the 2011 world championships in Tokyo.

Yang first attempted the difficult move named after him but slipped on landing, taking a few steps forward. Nonetheless, he scored 16.466, the highest among contenders. The start value of his first move was 7.4, higher than any move in vault. No one in the field submitted a move worth more than 7.0 points. That gave Yang some room when he took two steps on landing.

On his second, less challenging routine which requires three turns in the air and whose start value is 7.0, he made a flawless landing and sealed his gold medal with 16.600 points.

“After the first landing, I thought I would be in trouble,” Yang said. “But before the second try, I felt light as a feather. Everything went perfectly.”

Hours before Yang made history in Korean gymnastics, Kim Jong-hyun won the silver medal in the men’s 50-meter rifle three positions. It was the first rifle medal since the 2000 Sydney Games.

Kim shot 1,272.5 points total ― 1,171 points in qualification and 101.5 points in the final. Niccolo Campriani of Italy grabbed the gold with 1,278.5 points, while Matthew Emmons of the U.S. took the bronze with 1,271.3 points.

Kim erased a 1.6-point deficit against Emmons with the final shot of 10.4 out of the maximum 10.9. The American blew his silver medal chance with the final shot of 7.6, the lowest score by any of the eight finalists that day.

South Korea stayed at fourth in the medals table after events on Monday with 11 gold, five silver and six bronze medals.

Second-seed South Korea also reached the finals of the table tennis men’s team event after it disposed of Hong Kong 3-0. China beat Germany in a hard-fought semifinal, which was a rematch of the Beijing 2008 final. South Korea won the men’s team bronze in Beijing four years ago when the team event was introduced.

South Korean ace boxer Han Soon-chul secured a bronze in the men’s 60 kg class. He beat Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan 16-13 in the quarterfinal round. In boxing, where a bronze medal match is not held, a semifinalist is guaranteed at least a bronze medal.

Two sisters, Park Hyun-ha and Park Hyun-sun, qualified for the final round of synchronized swimming. It is the first time in 12 years for South Korea to reach the 12-team final round of the event. They scored 174.160 for the 12th spot out of 24 pairs.

Greco-Roman wrestler Jung Ji-hyun was knocked out of the quarterfinals in the men’s 60 kg class. The women’s table tennis squad fell to China in the semifinals.

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)