Men's archery team shoots first gold
South Korean archers Ku Bon-chan, left, Kim Woo-jin, center, and Lee Seung-yun celebrate after winning gold in the men’s archery team event at Sambodromo archery venue in Rio, Sunday (KST). / AP-Yonhap
Jeong Bo-kyeong clinches silver in women’s judo
By Baek Byung-yeul
South Korean male archers defeated the U.S. team in the final to claim the country’s first Rio Olympics gold medal, Sunday (KST).
The unrivaled trio of Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun trounced the United States team by the set score of 6-0 at Sambodromo archery venue, completing their revenge mission. While archery is one of South Korea’s traditional Olympic goldmines, the men’s archery team claimed a bronze medal four years ago at the 2012 London Games after taking a loss to the U.S. in the semifinals.
With this gold, South Korea has continued its dominance in archery as it was the country’s 20th gold in Olympic archery and fifth gold in the men’s team event following the 1988, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games.
The U.S. trio of Brady Ellison, Zach Garrett and Jake Kaminski took home silver for the second straight time while the Australian team earned bronze after defeating the Chinese.
The highlight of the finals came from the opening set when the South Korean trio hit the innermost gold circle for a maximum 10 points six times while the U.S. scored 57 points. After winning the second set with a tight margin of only 1 point (58-57), the South Korean team won the third set 59-56 to win the best-of-five-set game.
Kim, who broke the 72-arrow individual world record with a score of 700 in Friday’s ranking round, said “We’ve played this game for four years. We say that we believe in each other and try to have confidence. We talk all the time to cheer for each other.”
Following the gold medal, the South Korean archery team will vie for sweeping every gold in Olympic archery ― men’s and women’s individual and team competitions.
South Korea’s first Rio Olympics medal came from judo as Jeong Bo-kyeong clinched silver in the women’s -48 kilogram class at Carioca Arena 2, minutes before the archers’ win.
The world no. 8 Jeong reached the finals after stunning world no. 1 Urantsetseg Munkhbat of Mongolia in the quarterfinals, but couldn’t claim gold as she lost to Paula Pareto of Argentina by waza-ari (half point) in the final.
Women’s volleyball team beats Japan
On Saturday night, the women’s volleyball team defeated Japan 3-1 (19-25, 25-15, 25-17 and 25-21) at Maracanazinho Arena in Rio. The team’s ace attacker Kim Yeon-kyoung contributed the biggest share to her team’s win over the world’s fifth-place team, scoring the most points of any player in the match with 30 points.
The world’s ninth-ranked South Korea, paired with Russia (fourth), Japan, Argentina (12th), Cameroon (28th) and host Brazil (second-ranked) in Group A, will have their next match with Russia on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s strong medal contender Jin Jong-oh failed to defend his 10-meter air pistol title, finishing fifth in the final with 139.8 points at the Olympic Shooting Centre.
Vietnam’s Hoang Xuan Vinh took the gold while Brazil’s Felipe Almeida Wu and China’s Pang Wei won silver and bronze. Jin will try for the 50-meter pistol title on Thursday.
Swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who sought redemption in Rio, fell short as he couldn’t even reach the final in the 400-meter freestyle.
Park, who won a gold in the event in 2008 and a silver in 2012, failed to reach the final, which is only open to the top eight qualifiers, as he finished 10th in the heat. In the final, Mack Horton of Australia claimed the gold with three minutes and 41.55 seconds, Sun Yang of China won the silver with 3:41.68 and Italy’s Gabriele Detti won the bronze with 3:43.49.
Park will swim again in the 200-meter freestyle event, Monday.