In tough, windy conditions, South Korean talent rises to top in archery

In benign conditions with little breeze, archers good enough to qualify for the Olympics will more often than not hit high scores.

It's when the going gets tough, with wind blowing in from every which way, that true talent rises to the top.

Such has been the case in the two days of the archery competition so far at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics. 

South Korea won both the men's and women's team gold medals over the weekend, as their archers stayed on the mark despite sudden, unpredictable gusts of wind.

With grandstands lined up on either side of the range at Sambodromo, the swirling winds have been affecting arrow flights all week, from practice through preliminaries and the actual competition.

For the women's team event Sunday, the wind reached 1.5 m/s, with its direction changing from one archer to the next.

The South Koreans weren't entirely immune at first, with Chang Hye-jin and Choi Mi-sun shooting 8s early in the quarterfinals against Japan. The difference was that they adjusted on the fly and started hitting 9s and 10s with consistency, while the Japanese never recovered and could only manage 7s and 8s.

In the final, Russia also struggled in the wind, shooting just two 10s. The South Koreans meant business from the start, hitting five 10s in their first six arrows.

Ki Bo-bae alone had four 10s, while Chang and Choi each had three.

Chang, the first archer to shoot for South Korea, chalked the team's success up to confidence.

"There was pressure on me to be the first one to shoot in windy conditions," she said. "But I wanted to shoot with confidence and instill faith in my teammates."

Ki said the wind was stronger in the final than it was in the semis or the quarters, and it took a total team effort to fight through the elements.

Because the team had practiced so much in windy situations, women's coach Yang Chang-hoon said he knew challenging conditions would play right into his archers' hands.

"When I got here this morning, it was blowing hard," Yang said Sunday. "And I felt it would actually be an advantage to us if it kept blowing because of how accurate we usually are."

Park Chae-soon, the men's coach, said his archers were "real competitors" who wouldn't be affected by swirling winds or other elements.

"The national team trials are so tough that only the toughest and the most resilient of the competitors survive," Park said. "I said, 'If you shoot 8s because of the wind, the other guys will shoot 6s or 7s. You're the best in the world.' The only thing I told them was to enjoy themselves." (Yonhap)