Korea outshoots China for second archery gold

Korea claimed its second archery gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday, edging out China in a tight final for the women’s team recurve title.

The Korean team celebrate during the final of the Asian Games women's recurve archery contest against China in Hangzhou, China on Friday. [YONHAP]

Korea claimed its second archery gold medal of the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday, edging out China in a tight final for the women’s team recurve title.

Korea’s An San, Choi Mi-sun and Lim Si-hyeon faced a tough fight against An Qixuan, Li Jiaman and Hailigan of China, tying the first set at 58 points each for a 1-1 score.

Korea came back to win the second set 55-53, briefly taking a 3-1 lead before China tied things up again by winning the third set to take the score to 3-3. That left everything down to the fourth set, where Korea managed a 57 to China’s 54 to take a 5-3 victory and the gold medal.

Lim, already a gold medalist in the mixed team recurve, was the standout star again, hitting six 10s and two nines throughout the contest.

With the win, Korea so far have two gold — mixed team recurve and women’s team recurve — two silver — mixed team compound and men’s team compound — and one bronze — women’s team compound — in archery at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

More medals are likely to follow on Friday afternoon with the men’s team recurve and on Saturday with the individual medal rounds.

Korea has been an archery powerhouse for decades, dominating both the Asian Games and Olympics since the 1980s. At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where only recurve events were held, Korea won four of the five available gold medals.

The Asian Games also includes compound archery, a modern iteration of the sport using more high-tech bows that require less physical strength to draw. Korea is strong in both disciplines, winning two gold medals in each one at the 2018 Asian Games.

Korea’s performance at the last Asiad paled in comparison to the Tokyo Olympics. While Kim Woo-jin won the men’s individual recurve event and the women’s team of Chang Hye-jin, Kang Chae-young and Lee Eun-gyeong took the team gold, Korea took silver in the men’s team, bronze in the women’s individual and did not medal in the mixed team event.

Those results could look quite different this year after Korea’s dominance at the Olympics. Kim Woo-jin is the third-highest ranked male recurve archer in the world and the highest ranked in Asia, with Lee Woo-seok and Kim Je-deok both in the global top 10.

Over in the women’s recurve, Lim Si-hyeon sits at world No. 3 with Olympic record holder and the most successful Olympic archer ever An San at No. 5. Kang and Choi Mi-sun at No. 6 and 7, with no other Asian archers in the top 10.

Compound is more competitive, with Indian archers outstripping Korea on both the men’s and women’s world rankings, but Korea is still the second-highest ranked country on either ranking.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]