Rio De Janeiro-The South Koreans win the women’s Olympic team archery title all the time.
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The Rio 2016 Olympic archery competition continues with individual eliminations on 8-10 August.
The trio of Ki Bo-bae, Choi Mi-sun and Chang Hye-jin were unflappable at the gusty Sambadrome, routing their opponents 5-1 and sending Korean fans in the terraces into raptures.
With a set win worth two points and a draw worth one, South Korea only needed the minimum three sets to win. Kim Woojin scored 700 out of a possible 720 points for the ranking round at the Rio 2016 Olympic archery competition.
Chinese Taipei won its first match easily, 6-0, against Georgia. It’s hard to explain and we can just say it was a bad day in the office for nearly all of Korea’s athletes.
Russian Federation opened with 55 points, seven more than India, to take the first set. It was the Koreans’ turn to shoot 30, and claim the second set by a point. She lost to Paula Pareto of Argentina by waza-ari (half point) in the final, but it was seen as a surprise that Jeong even reached the final.
“That helped a lot, watching them do well, ” Ki said through a translator. The Americans finished with 10 of their 18 arrows in the top-scoring ring.
The Colombian women’s team met India in the first round. After three sets, the teams were tied.
“This is my first time at the Olympics and we’re super excited to have won this”, said Lin Shih-Chia. She’s a success story that the Rio Olympics can be proud of. “I hurt my left shoulder about three weeks ago so I was unable to execute some moves as well as I wanted to”. “I never thought the Koreans could shoot that great”.
The Italian women’s team beat Brazil and upset China to make the semis.
After the match against the Brazilians in the first round, Guendalina Sartori was clear on the team’s expectations: “We want to go to the finals”. “This medal was won not just by the team but by everyone who supported us. If we shoot like we just did, we will go”.
Chinese Taipei beat Italy in the bronze medal match, also 5-1.
“The important thing is that you have to fight until the last arrow, with your heart and mind”, said coach Ilario Di Buo.
The USA scored 56 of a possible 60 points, Korea had 59 – shooting another three consecutive ideal 10s to close out the match and take archery’s first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Asked afterwards how it tasted, Chang replied: “For me, it tastes like rainbow-coloured candy”.
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With its professional teams and punishing training regimes, the depth of Korean archery is unmatched and the nation will be disappointed if it fails to sweep all four titles at Rio.
