Korean Archers Prove Prowess Again
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
South Korea proved it is still archery's world heavyweight at the Archery World Championships in Ulsan this week.
At the biennial tournament, which came to an end on Wednesday, the East Asian nation claimed four gold and three silver medals to finish first in the overall standings.
They swept all four gold in the recurve events for the third time, after doing so previously at the 1997 and 2005 contests in Victoria, Canada and Madrid, Spain, respectively.
However, Korea's performance in the compound events left much to be desired. In the compound, which uses a levering system and is rarely known in Korea, the national team managed just a silver medal in the women's team event.
The success at the worlds came as perhaps a little bit of a surprise. At the national team tryouts in March, two world no. 2s, Park Kyung-mo on the men's side and Park Sung-hyun on the women's, failed to qualify for the Korean team.
There were concerns because the duo, along with Im Dong-hyun and Yoon Ok-hee, had been the linchpins of the Korean archery team.
That the pair did not make the national team proved to be a testament to how deep the Korea talent pool is, and resulted in the country's best ever showing at the worlds.
Lee Chang-hwan and Joo Hyung-jung won their first ever gold medals in international competition on Wednesday and Oh Jin-hyek singlehandedly set three world records in the qualifying of the team event to establish himself as a key figure on the men's team.
In addition, teenage archer Kwak Ye-ji showed a glimpse of being the "next big thing" on the women's side, as the 17-year-old closed out the championships with one gold in the team competition and one silver in the individual.
Long Way to Go in Compound
Ahead of the World Championships, the first in Korea since 1985 when it was held in Seoul, Korea formed national teams in the compound for the first time.
The Korea Archery Association (KAA) had been sending just one female and one male archer to the world championships to compete in the compound since 2005.
While all six archers crashed out in the individual tournament, the 22nd-ranked women's team proved to be the big surprise, going all the way to the final and beating top-ranked Russia in the process.
But a lack of experience led to two critical penalties in the final against France, which cost them the title.
In Korea, there are a total of 19 women archers in the compound, and it's even worse on the men's side ― the KAA had to recruit a retired recurve archer to form the three-man national team.
But there are beginning to be calls for more support for the event.
"I heard from teammates that there is little support for the compound,'' said Hwang Saeng-wook, who was selected to the national team from a social compound club.
"I think there should be an investment made into schools to ensure we are at least competitive in the future.''
Men's compound team coach Chung Jae-hun echoed Hwang's sentiments.
"Now is the time to give a boost to the compound,'' he said.
The compound is not an official event at the Summer Olympic Games, which has contributed to the lack of interest for it in Korea.
To improve its competitiveness in the event, the archery governing body has sought to have it included as an exhibition sport at the Korean National Sports Festival, but a Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) regulation that requires a sport to have at least one team and 10 players in 16 cities and provinces, has prevented its entry to the annual event.
The KAA and the KOC, however, may now be in a position to create a plan to develop the sport because the International Archery Federation (FITA) has recently been taking action to have compound included as an official or exhibition event at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.