Competition begins for S. Korea with preliminary action in archery, handball

The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics is Friday evening, but there will be preliminary action taking place in the days leading up to the occasion.

For South Korea, the action begins with the individual ranking rounds in the women's and men's archery, followed by the Group A match in the women's handball tournament Thursday.

The ranking rounds in archery will determine seeding for the tournament. The higher the seed, the better chance an archer has of avoiding tough competition early in the knockout competition.

Archers will each shoot 72 arrows -- across 12 ends of six arrows each -- for a perfect score of 720.

The women's ranking round will begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Les Invalides in Paris, or 4:30 p.m. the same day in South Korea. South Korea will have Lim Si-hyeon, Jeon Hun-young and Nam Su-hyeon in action.

The men's ranking round will start at 2:15 p.m. Thursday local time, or 9:15 p.m. in Seoul. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok will represent South Korea.

The top South Korean male and female archers there will be partners in the mixed team event. Kim Je-deok combined with An San for the inaugural mixed team gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, but An didn't survive the national Olympic trials this time.

In women's handball, South Korea will open the preliminary round against Germany at 4 p.m. at South Paris Arena 6 in Paris, or 11 p.m. in Seoul.

Women's handball is the only team sport in which South Korea will participate at these Olympic Games.

There are two groups of six, and the top four nations after round-robin action will qualify for the quarterfinals.

After Germany, South Korea will face Slovenia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

South Korea hasn't won a women's handball medal since taking home bronze in 2008. It finished fourth in 2012, 10th in 2016 and eighth in 2021.

Ryu Eun-hee, one of South Korea's top attackers competing in her fourth consecutive Olympics, stressed the importance of the first match. South Korea regards Germany and Slovenia as the two relatively easier opponents in the group, and winning the opener will help push South Korea in the right direction.

"We've had our eyes on reaching the quarterfinals, and we should be able to play good matches if we avoid injuries," Ryu said. "We really want to win for our fans."

Ironically, though, Ryu is the one battling an injury at the moment. The 34-year-old sustained ligament damage to fingers on her left hand during a match for her club in Hungary last month, and she has been practicing and playing with her ring finger and pinky taped.

"I still feel some pain. They said it's not broken but a ligament on the inner part has been torn," Ryu said. "But having the fingers taped actually feels comfortable."

Before arriving in France, South Korea had trained in Spain and the Netherlands. South Korea battled the Dutch team hard before falling 26-24 last Thursday.

"We played well in that match, and the two matches we played in Spain before that also went pretty well," Ryu noted. "I think we're getting better and better and our confidence is running high." (Yonhap)