S. Korea wins 1 gold, 1 silver in team compound archery

In women's compound, Choi Bo-min, Kim Yun-hee and Seok Ji-hyun outshot Chinese Taipei's Chen Li Ju, Huang I Jou and Wen Ning Meng 229-226. India took the bronze after beating Iran 224-217.

South Korea built an early lead, beating Chinese Taipei 59-56 in the first end. Chinese Taipei took one step forward and two steps back in the following ends when Chen shot a 7 to scupper the 58-57 lead her team had built in the second end. South Korea took advantage of the slip-up and emerged as the eventual winner.

"While preparing for this game, we had been uncertain whether we would ever get to see the light of day," said Choi, the eldest of the three athletes, during an interview after the competition. "We're very happy that (the match) ended with good results."

Eyes reddened from joyful tears, Choi paid homage to Shin Hyeon-jong, her former coach who passed away last year from a cerebral hemorrhage during a competition held in Turkey.

"We somehow knew that our former coach would be protecting us from heaven. Although he is not here with us, we are sure that he would be proud of our win," Choi added.

More than a thousand fans filled the seats at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field on Saturday. Some held up cardboard signs with the names of their favorite archers written in colorful neon letters.

In men's compound, South Korea was forced to settle for silver after Choi Yong-hee, Min Li-hong and Yang Young-ho lost 227-225 to India's Rajat Chauhan, Sandeep Kumar and Abhishek Verma.

South Korea got off to a bumpy start, losing to India 55-54 and 58-57 in the first two ends. It managed a tie of 58-58 in the third end but Yang's 7 in the final end consolidated India's win.

Iran claimed the bronze with a 227-224 win over the Philippines.

Unlike recurve archery, which divides each match into sets, compound archery counts all arrows toward the final score. Each team shoots 24 arrows, with each of the three members contributing eight. This is the first time compound archery has been included at the Asian Games.

Choi and Seok will take on Chinese Taipei's Huang I Jou and India's Trisha Deb, respectively, at the individual compound semifinals later Saturday.

Earlier this week, South Korea advanced to the women's recurve team finals slated for Sunday. Its male archers, however, failed to claim their ninth straight Asian Games gold after losing to China in the semis. (Yonhap)