[Gwangju Universiade] Archery, taekwondo put Korea ahead of pack

● Archery

The Republic of Korea (ROK) took four gold medals in recurve archery on July 8, claiming a total of eight out of 10 archery titles at the Gwangju Universiade.

Having clinched four titles in compound archery the previous day, Korea continued to dominate the recurve competitions, taking four golds at the Gwangju International Archery Center.

In the morning, Korea’s Kim Woo-jin, Ku Bon-chan and Lee Seung-yun beat Chinese Taipei 5-1 to capture a gold in the men’s team recurve. Russia took the bronze by defeating Kazakhstan 6-0.

Recurve archery games are contested in sets, with six arrows allotted to each side in the team event. Winning a set grants two points while a draw awards one point. The first team to reach five points wins.

Chinese Taipei’s Wei Chun-heng, Yu Guan-lin and Wang Hou-chieh lost the first two sets, giving away four points to Korea. Though the two countries drew in the third set with 57 points, the one point was enough for Korea to win the event.

“Though I was feeling very nervous before the match, I tried hard to shoot as I did during my practice sessions,” Kim said. “Though my first shot was a bit off, my colleagues performed very well and led the game,” he added.

Korea’s Lee and Ki Bo-bae also beat Chinese Taipei in the mixed team recurve final 5-4. Russia downed Japan 5-1 for the bronze.

Ki, a seasoned archer with two Olympics gold medals under her name, said that having been in many shoot-offs in the national team trials helped her prepare for the Universiade matches.

“I didn’t think the final was going to be easy. I was nervous, but I relied on Seung-yun to get through,” Ki said.

Korea dominated the men’s individual recurve final by winning all three medals. Lee claimed his third recurve gold, beating his compatriot Ku 6-0 to become the country’s second triple gold medalist at the Universiade alongside archer Kim Jong-ho. Korea’s Kim Woo-jin won bronze.

Ki secured Korea’s fourth medal of the day by claiming the women’s individual gold over teammate Choi Mi-sun with a set score of 6-5. Denmark’s Maja Buskbjerg Jager won bronze by defeating Chinese Taipei’s Hsiung Mei-chien 6-5.

In the women’s team recurve final, Chinese Taipei’s Tan Ya-ting, Hsiung Mei-chien and Lin Shih-chia outscored Korea 5-3 for the gold.

● Judo

Japan took both the golds at stake in judo on July 8, bringing the total number of its judo golds over five days to seven.

Japan beat the Republic of Korea 3-2 in both women’s and men’s team finals.

Korea leads the medal count with eight golds, followed by Japan in second place.

Russia and Ukraine captured bronze medals in the men’s team. The bronze medals in the women’s team went to Brazil and Russia.

In the women’s team final, Mako Uchio, Sarah Asahina and Anzu Yamamoto took down Korean judokas, while Kim Seong-yeon and Bak Ji-yun beat their Japanese opponents.

In the men’s team final, three Japanese judo players Sho Tateyama, Kenya Kohara and Kenta Nagasawa won their matches.

Uchio won gold in the -52kg class on July 6. Asahina took gold in the +78kg category on July 4.

● Taekwondo

The Republic of Korea (ROK) swept all three events on Day 2 of the taekwondo competition.

Jang Se-hoon, Jo Jeong-hun and Lee Gwanghyun scored 7.52 points with a gold-winning forms in the men’s team poomsae. Choi Hyo-seo, Choi Ji-eun and Gwak Yeo-won displayed their gold-winning movements in the women’s team poomsae. The final of the mixed pair poomsae was close. The Korean pair of Lee Jae-hee and Gwon Hyeok-in received 7.630 points, just 0.02 points ahead of Mexico in second.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)