By Yi Whan-woo
The South Korean men’s archery team came from behind to beat China 222-218 in the final of the Guangzhou Asian Games, Monday, achieving its eight consecutive Asiad title since 1982.
The members celebrated victory in the last end, in which the trio was assured even a perfect score by China’s final shot would not overturn the match.
The South Korean trio comprising of Im Dong-hyun, Kim Woo-jin and Oh Jin-hyek outshot the Chinese in the fourth and last end with a 54-49 score, retrieving a one-point deficit from the sum of the previous three with 168-169.
Oh, the team’s third archer, came up with a 10 in his last shot of the two-round end to mark 54 for South Korea, ensuring Xing Yu had no chance for an upset.
Xing shot for nine points for 49, but couldn’t make up for the fatal error made by compatriot Dai Xiaoxiang. Dai’s six-point earlier as second shooter in the second round led China to collapse.
“I knew China would make a mistake in this final,” Kim said.
“Even though we were behind the Chinese up to the third end, the fact they get nervous when they meet us made me sure of this,” he added.
While the team enjoyed this historic victory since Korea’s New Delhi Asiad win, Im celebrated more with his third straight Asiad gold in the team event since the 2002 Games held in Busan.
In bowling Korea snatched the gold medal in five-man team event setting new Asian record with 6,654 points over six rounds.
The victory is for the first for Korea in 16 years since it won in the Hiroshima Asian Games in 1994.
After the first three rounds the Koreans seemed far from gold at 154 points behind their opponents Malaysia — they were still 75 points behind after the fifth round.
However, the team managed to hit valuable strikes in the last for a come-from-behind victory.
Choi Yong-kyu, who grabbed gold in the five- and three-man team events, added silver by coming second in the overall number of points scored with 5,441.
Park Jeong-hwan and Lee Seul-a snatched gold in the mixed doubles event beating out the Chinese pair of He Xie and Ronghui Song while Choi Chul-han Kim yoon-yeong pair earned bronze in the same event.
In wrestling Korea failed to grab gold, although Lee Se-yeol and Park jin-sung earned silver and bronze, respectively.
Meanwhile the Korean women’s football team beat home team China for the bronze.
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