TOKYO, Jul 26 (Yonhap) – South Korea won a gold medal in the men’s team archery on Monday, giving the country its third gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Kim Je-deok, Kim Woo-jin and Oh Jin-hyek teamed up to defeat Taiwan 6-0 at Yumenoshima Park Archery Ground in the Japanese capital.
South Korea had already won gold medals in the mixed team event on Saturday and the women’s team event on Sunday.
The country is now on two individual titles, men and women, to win all the gold medals in archery in Tokyo.
Kim Je-deok, 17, joined An San, a member of the women’s team, as a two-time gold medalist. The two won the mixed team medal, then An helped the women’s team to the top step of the podium.
Oh and Kim Woo-jin also have two Olympic gold medals. Oh is the 2012 individual champion and Kim was part of the 2016 gold medalist men’s team.
The men’s team event was added to the Olympics in 1988, and South Korea has now won men’s team gold six out of nine times.
The team archery competitions are now over. The individual events begin with the 64-game round on Tuesday.
In the team event, each of the three archers shoots two arrows per set, for a total of six arrows. A win per set is worth two points, and a tie is worth one point. The first team to reach five points wins the game.
In the event of a tie after four sets, the teams participate in overtime, where the arrow with the highest score or the arrow closest to 10 is declared the winner.
Against Taiwan, South Korea won the first set 59-55, only Kim Je-deok missing the 10 with his first arrow.
Kim caught up in the second set with South Korea scoring a perfect 60, two better than their opponents, and taking a 4-0 lead.
Shooting first, Taiwan scored a 55 in the third set. Holding the last arrow, Oh only needed a 9 to score a point, but the veteran hit a 10 for the victory.
“I knew for sure that the last arrow was going to hit a 10,” Oh said afterwards.
Given the long winning tradition of South Korean archery, there is always pressure on archers.
“I kept telling myself not to think about winning medals because I would be completely exhausted,” said Kim Je-deok. “And in that case, I wouldn’t be able to play the way I can. So I tried to stay relaxed as much as possible. ”
Teammates will now become opponents when the individual event begins on Tuesday. Kim Woo-jin, however, said he wouldn’t consider it a competition with his two teammates.
“I think we are going to conduct each other in a positive way,” he said. “We are not going to try to fight. I hope the three of us play well. ”
