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| South Korean female archers, from left, Jung Dasomi, Lee Tuk-young and Chang Hye-jin, pose after winning gold medals in the women's team recurve archery final after defeating their Chinese opponents 3-0 at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field in Incheon, Sunday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Kim Tae-jong
South Korean female archers won the team recurve archery final, Sunday, garnering their country an historic fifth straight Asiad gold in the event.
The team, consisting of Jung Dasomi, Chang Hye-jin and Lee Tuk-young, secured a comfortable 6-0 win over their Chinese opponents ― Cheng Ming, Xu Jing and Zhu Jueman.
"We've prepared for this moment for the last 10 months, and I'm really happy that we have made new history by winning the fifth straight gold at the Asiad," Lee said after the match at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field in Incheon.
It was also the country's third gold in the sport at the Incheon Asian Games following two gold medals in women's individual and team compound archery the previous day.
Lee said she thanked her teammate Joo Hyun-jung most, who let her replace Joo and join the team.
"I thought that if Lee played with us, it would help us perform well," Lee said.
Joo voluntarily withdrew from the team event from the semifinals due to a minor shoulder injury. Although Joo could insist to compete, she gave up to help her team win the gold.
"I'm happy as if I won the gold," Joo said. "After preliminary matches, I had a dream where my team won the gold. So, I just told them play comfortable before the final."
It was indeed a comfortable match for the Koreans, as the Chinese made mistakes from the first set.
The Chinese team shot two 7s without a 10 in the first set and only managed to record two 10s throughout the event, while the Koreans earned eight 10s out of 18 shots.
A set consists in shooting two arrows of each archer of which the total value decides who wins the set. The winner team gets 2 points with 1 point given to two teams in a draw set.
The new "set" system is different from the previous rule in which the total value was added to the overall score to determine the winner.
The Koreans won 6 points by winning the first three sets ― 54-50, 56-55 and 58-52.
In the women's recurve team event, Japan settled for the bronze after a cliffhanger match against India.
Meanwhile, South Korea's men recurve team clinched the bronze by defeating Japan 5-3.
Korea's Lee Seung-yun, Ku Bon-chan and Oh Jin-hyek ― took an early lead by winning the first set against Japan's Takaharu Furukawa, Hideki Kikuchi and Shohei Ota and secured it after they drew in the second set.
The Japanese won the third set by 58-56 and were tied with the Koreans 3-3. But they failed to upset the Koreans as they shot two 8s in the final set.
In the men's recurve team event, China, which ended the South Korea's bid to win the nine straight Asiad gold in their semifinals, won the gold after defeating Malaysia 6-0.
