Competition begins for Korea with preliminary action in archery, handball

Korean archers take part in a training session at Les Invalides in Paris, July 23. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics is Friday evening, but there will be preliminary action taking place in the days leading up to the occasion.

For Korea, the action begins with the individual ranking rounds in the women's and men's archery, followed by the Group A match in the women's handball tournament Thursday.

The ranking rounds in archery will determine seeding for the tournament. The higher the seed, the better chance an archer has of avoiding tough competition early in the knockout competition.

Archers will each shoot 72 arrows — across 12 ends of six arrows each — for a perfect score of 720.

The women's ranking round will begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Les Invalides in Paris, or 4:30 p.m. the same day in Korea. Korea will have Lim Si-hyeon, Jeon Hun-young and Nam Su-hyeon in action.

The men's ranking round will start at 2:15 p.m. Thursday local time, or 9:15 p.m. in Seoul. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok will represent Korea.

The top Korean male and female archers there will be partners in the mixed team event. Kim Je-deok combined with An San for the inaugural mixed team gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, but An didn't survive the national Olympic trials this time.

The Korean women's handball team practices at South Paris Arena 6 in Paris, July 22. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

In women's handball, Korea will open the preliminary round against Germany at 4 p.m. at South Paris Arena 6 in Paris, or 11 p.m. in Seoul.

Women's handball is the only team sport in which Korea will participate at these Olympic Games.

There are two groups of six, and the top four nations after round-robin action will qualify for the quarterfinals.

After Germany, Korea will face Slovenia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Korea hasn't won a women's handball medal since taking home bronze in 2008. It finished fourth in 2012, 10th in 2016 and eighth in 2021. (Yonhap)