South Korea’s Im Dong-hyun broke his own 72-arrow world record in the Olympics men’s archery ranking round with a score of 699 yesterday.
Im and his South Korean teammates, Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek, also broke the team world record for 72 arrows with a score of 2,087 at Lord’s in London.
Im, who won team gold at the 2008 and 2004 Games, lost his world No. 1 ranking to American Brady Ellison last year, but he has been in sensational form in the lead-up to the London Games, winning the test event at Lord’s late last year and setting the previous record of 696 in Turkey in May.
Photo: AFP
The South Korean, who suffers from myopia, is legally blind, and just aims at a “blob of yellow color” in the center of the target 70m away, was happy to be at the top of the ranking round, but was not about to get carried away.
“It’s just the first round, so I won’t get too excited about it,” he said.
Taiwan’s highest-placed archer was Wang Cheng-pang in 33rd place with a score of 663, while his teammates Kuo Cheng-wei and Chen Yu-cheng finished 40th and 54th respectively.
In the team competition, Taiwan ranked 11th out of the 12 nation’s represented, three points above India.
Im is set to face 64th-ranked archer Emanuele Guidi of San Marino in the first round. Guidi scored 110 points less than Im.
Im’s teammate, Kim, would also have broken the record after shooting 698, while the third member of the team, Oh, finished with 690.
South Korea head coach Jang Young-sool was delighted his team had shot so well in the ranking round and said the damp drizzly conditions had not been a problem.
“It was good weather to shoot,” he said. “A world record gives us confidence for the rest of the competition.”
Despite winning the last three team gold medals, South Korea’s men have yet to win the individual title.
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