Ku completes S. Korea's archery gold sweep
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Gold medal winner Ku Bon-chan of South Korea, center, celebrates on the podium with silver medalist Jean Charles Valladont of France, left, and bronze medalist Brady Ellison of the United States at the awards ceremony of the men’s individual archery competition at the Sambodromo archery venue during the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Friday. / AP-Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
With Ku Bon-chan clinching the men’s individual gold medal on Friday, South Korea has completed an unprecedented sweep in archery during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
At Sambodromo archery venue in Rio, the 23-year-old Ku defeated Jean-Charles Valladont of France 7-3 (30-28, 28-26, 29-29, 28-29, 27-26) in the final.
After taking easy wins in his first two rounds, Ku had gone through thorny path to the final as he needed five full sets to win each of the remaining four matches.
The world No. 2 was able to reach the final after single-arrow tiebreakers both in the quarters and semis against Taylor Worth of Australia and Brady Ellison of the United States.
Ku also had a stiff final duel with the French archer. He trounced Valladont in the first two sets for a 4-0 lead but had a draw to have only one point in the third set as Valladont’s final arrow was earned the maximum 10 points.
Ku lost the fourth set but took the fifth as Valladont shot a pair of 8s while Ku shot 9, 10 and 8. 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.
With the win, Ku became the second double gold medalist in the South Korea delegation to the Rio Olympics, following his fellow archer Chang Hye-jin, who bagged women’s individual gold on Thursday and women’s team competition gold on Aug. 7.
Prior to the individual competition, Ku was a member of the gold medal winning men’s archery team. Comprising Ku, Kim Woo-jin and Lee Seung-yun, the trio presented their country’s first Rio Olympics gold on Aug. 6. Kim and Lee were eliminated from the round of 32 and eight.
South Korea has been a power house in archery, clinching 23 gold, nine silver and seven bronze since the 1984 Summer Games, but it took 28 years to complete the first-ever clean sweep of archery’s Olympic gold medals. Ever since the team competition was first introduced in the 1988 Olympics, South Korea came close in 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2012, winning three gold medals each.
After winning the gold, Ku was modest, saying he simply got lucky.
“I don’t think I wrote history,” he said. “I just prepared as much as I could and things went my way. But I am not going to be content and complacent. I’ll keep going forward.”
Kim Jong-hyun’s surprise silver
South Korea produced surprising success in shooting as world No. 42 Kim Jong-hyun won silver in the men’s 50-meter rifle prone at the Olympic Shooting Centre, Friday.
Kim will attempt to win his second straight medal on Sunday as he will compete in the 50-meter rifle three positions which is Kim’s main event. He won silver in that event four years ago at the London Olympics. With the medal, Kim became the second shooter to win a medal in Rio following Jin Jong-oh who captured gold in the men’s 50-meter pistol last week.
South Korean women’s volleyball team lost to the host Brazil 3-0 in their Pool A match. South Korea, who had two wins and two losses, has left their final preliminary match against Cameroon on Sunday but the team will join the last eight regardless of the match result.
Meanwhile, the South Korean women’s handball team failed to advance to the quarterfinals after falling to France 21-17.
S. Korea medal-less on day 8
Though South Korea added one gold and one silver on day 7, no medals were produced on day 8 of the Rio Olympics.
In men’s football, South Korea failed to book a spot in the semis after falling to Honduras 1-0. Though South Korea dominated the game in terms of possession (64 percent to 36) and shots (16 to 5), they couldn’t score a goal while the Central American country managed to earn one.
Prior to the football match, the South Korean women’s sabre fencing team lost to Ukraine 45-40 in the quarters. The team finished fifth after defeating France and Poland in the following matches.
South Korean women’s table tennis team also lost to Singapore 3-2 in the quarters. With every player losing their chance to win a medal in the men and women’s singles the country only has Sunday’s quarterfinal match of the men’s team left.
In men’s golf, An Byeong-hun shot one-under 70 to sit at three-under 210 overall and Wang Jeung-hun tied for 51st at six-over 219 after Saturday’s third round. An has tied for 14th with seven other golfers, sitting nine shots behind the leader Justin Rose of Britain.
In badminton, the world No. 1 duo of Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong, who already clinched a quarterfinals spot, finished second in Group A after losing to the Russian duo of Vladmir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov.
As of day 8, South Korea has garnered six gold, three silver and four bronze to place ninth in gold medal tally, following Italy with six gold, seven silver and five bronze. The United States has been in the lead with 24 gold, 18 silver and 18 bronze, followed by China with 13 gold, 11 silver and 17 bronze and Britain with 10 gold, 13 silver and seven bronze.