The South Korean archery team finished second overall with two gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the first round of the Modern Archery World Cup 2024, which concluded on Monday.
The country’s first gold medal came in the recurve mixed team event, where “women’s archery sensations” Im Si Hyun (Hanchee University) and Kim Woo Jin (Cheongju City Government) were paired together. After starting the tournament as the top-ranked team in qualifying, the duo defeated Mongolia, Malaysia, and India to reach the final, where they won a thrilling 5-4 in a shootout against Spain, who finished 11th in qualifying.
On the afternoon of the 28th, the rising star added a gold medal in the women’s individual recurve event to complete her double. After topping the qualifiers with ease, the South Korean dominated the tournament, dropping just one set to her opponent from the round of 64 to the quarterfinals, reaching the semifinals where she won a shootout against China’s Li Jiaman. In the final, she avenged her teammate Nam Soo-hyun’s loss with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over India’s Kumari, who came from behind to win the title.
The semifinals of the men’s individual recurve event saw a head-to-head matchup. Kim Woo-jin, the eldest member of the national team who won gold in the mixed team event, and Kim Jeduk (Yecheon-gun), the youngest member of the national team, faced off. After a five-set thriller, Kim prevailed to advance to the final, while Woo-jin advanced to the bronze medal match. In the final, Kim won the first set against Spain’s Bok Byeong Temino, but Temino had a perfect game in the next set to finish as the runner-up, while Kim Woo-jin showed her shooting skills in the bronze medal match, winning 30, 29, 29, 29 in four sets.
In the men’s and women’s team event, Korea added a silver medal side-by-side. Both the women’s recurve team of Lim Im-hyun, Nam Soo-hyun, and Jeon Hoon-young (Incheon City Hall) and the men’s recurve team of Kim Jeduk, Kim Woo-jin, and Lee Woo-seok (Kolon) reached the final, but had to settle for silver after losing to China and India, respectively.
Meanwhile, the compound team, which also competed at the event, won one bronze medal. The compound men’s team, comprised of Yang Jae-won (Commerce), Kim Jong-ho (Hyundai Steel), and Park Seung-hyun (Incheon Gyeyang-gu Office), defeated Hong Kong and New Zealand to reach the semifinals, where they faced India, the world’s strongest team in 토토사이트 compound, but fell short with a final score of 233 to 235. In the bronze medal match, they defeated France 235 to 232 to win the compound team’s only medal of the tournament. The Korean archers finished the tournament with two gold, three silver and two bronze medals, finishing second overall behind India, who won four gold medals in the compound event alone.
The team will return to Korea on May 29 and will hold its first special match against the Korean National B Team on May 7-9 at the archery range at the Jincheon National Athletes Village in preparation for the Paris Olympics in July.