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| Chang Hye-jin celebrates on the podium at the awards ceremony of the women's individual archery competition at the Sambadrome venue in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
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At Rio's Sambodromo archery venue, world No. 6 Chang Hye-jin, who advanced to the final after defeating her fellow archer and world No. 3 Ki Bo-bae in the semifinals, bagged gold after a four-set final against Lisa Unruh of Germany.
With the gold, the 29-year-old Chang became the eighth South Korean archer to claim Olympic gold in the women's individual event. The gold was also her second Olympic triumph. As captain of her team, the trio of Chang, Ki and world No. 1 Choi Mi-sun clinched gold in the women's team competition, Sunday, extending their remarkable winning streak in the event to eight straight Olympics.
In the women's individual final, Chang beat the world No. 16 Unruh by the set score of 6-2 (27-26, 26-28, 27-26, 28-27). The first archer to reach six points wins the match. Archers have three arrows per set and the winner in each set takes two points while there is one point each for a draw.
Chang got off to a good start, winning the first set. But her German opponent had two 9s and one 10 in the second set to tie with Chang.
Unruh, however, collapsed in the third set, hitting a 7 with her second arrow while Chang managed to hit 10, 9 and 8.
Chang put the finishing touch in the fourth set hitting 10 twice and a 9 while Unruh had three 9s.
Chang said she was surprised by the result. "I didn't come here expecting to win the individual gold," she said. "My mindset was to go out there and enjoy the competition as much as I can. And I did just that and I am satisfied with the result."
Though Chang was placed sixth in the world rankings, she was less considered to win a medal compared to her fellow archers Ki and Choi. However, Ki lost to Chang in the semifinal by the set score of 7-3 while Choi took a dismal 6-0 defeat against Alejandra Valencia of Mexico in the quarterfinals.
Facing Valencia in the bronze medal match, Ki bagged bronze by winning 6-4 (26-25, 28-29, 26-25, 21-27, 30-25). With the bronze, Ki who swept women's individual and team event gold in the 2012 London Olympics, has garnered four Olympic medal including three gold and one bronze.
"We didn't care about shooting against each other, we were just shooting to make the finals. We were just doing our best, no matter the result. I didn't think I was shooting against my teammate. I thought I was shooting against someone else," Chang said.
The archery gold was South Korea's third gold medal in the Rio Olympics as well. South Korea has been a powerhouse in the event and has set a goal to sweep all four medals — men's and women's individual and team competitions. Lee Seung-yun and Ku Bon-chan, members of gold medal-winning men's team, will try to defend the individual title, Friday.
With the gold and bronze, South Korea is fifth in the gold medal tally. The United States has displayed its firm presence in the standings with 16 gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze, followed by China with 11 gold, eight silver, 11 bronze and Japan with seven gold, two silver and 13 bronze.
In golf, an event that is back in the Olympics after 112 years — the 1904 St. Louis Olympics — two South Korean male golfers showed a decent start in the opening round.
On the par-71, 7,128-yard course, An Byeong-hun, the 2015 European Tour Rookie of the Year, placed ninth in the first round recording a 3-under 68. The 25-year-old golfer made headlines for taking part in the Rio Olympics together with his father Jae-hyung who is in Brazil as the South Korea men's table tennis team head coach.
Another Korean Wang Jeong-hun tied for 17th at a one-under 70 with three birdies and a double bogey.
Elsewhere, South Korean boxer Ham Sang-myeong, the only South Korean boxer featured in the Rio Olympics, advanced to the round of 16 after defeating Victor Rodriguez of Venezuela 2-1 in the men's bantam class event.
Ham will have a round of 16 match Sunday against China's Zhang Jiawei who he defeated in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games' gold medal match.
In judo, South Korea has continued to remain "goldless" in the Rio Olympics as Cho Gu-ham was knocked out in the round of 16 in the men's 100 kg.
With only a day left, Kim Sung-min competed in the men's over 100 kg class event and Kim Min-jeong will compete in the women's over 78 kg class event, Friday.
The South Korea women's epee fencing team lost to Estonia in the quarterfinal and settled for sixth place.
Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong in the men's badminton doubles took their first win after defeating the Australian duo of Matthew Chau and Sawan Serasinghe 2-0.
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