S. Korea, U.S. steal the show at archery meet
JAKARTA (JP): South Korea and the United States shared the limelight in the first day of the 38th World Archery Championships when they topped the qualifying round standings in recurve and compound events.
South Korea paraded new faces but managed to live up to the country's billing as an archery powerhouse. The South Korean male and female athletes dominated the qualifying round in the recurve competition, the only archery division accepted as an Olympic event.
It was an American show in the compound event, the newest category since the world archery championships began in 1931. The United States has its sights set to sweep all four golds offered in this new division when its male and female archers took command in both the individual and team competitions.
All archers will complete the qualifying round today. Only 64 athletes and 16 teams are eligible for the medal race tomorrow. Those who finish first in the qualifying round will earn top seeds and will start tomorrow's elimination round against their bottom-placed qualifiers.
The trio of Youm Youn-ja, Kim Jo-sun and Hwang Jin-hae opened South Korea's flawless stride. They finished first, second and third respectively after two compulsory disciplines yesterday. They also totaled 1,969 to open up a 24-point gap with second- placed Turkey.
Indonesian women's team which upset South Korea in the Asian Games last year got off to a shaky start as it collected just 1,860 points placing it 13th among 25 teams.
In the men's category, South Korea's Oh Kyo-moon, Kim Jae-rak and Lee Kyung-chul produced another clean sweep after shooting from 90m and 70m.
Scoring 1,976 points, they left the U.S. trailing in second place by 51 points. The U.S.' three-time world champion Richard McKinney and Korean Lee both scored 342 from 70m, two points short of the world record established by Japan's Hiroshi Yamamoto in 1990.
A total of eight gold medals are up for grabs in the Aug. 1-6 world archery meet being held here for the first time. The overall champion will bring home the President Soeharto's Cup.
The trophy was given to the world archery body during the opening ceremony on Tuesday, marking the formal acceptance of a Cup to substitute the original trophy which went missing during World War II.
Compound
The compound event was dominated by Americans Gary Broadhead and John Vozzy, sharing the men's individual leadership after finishing the 90m and 70m distances with a total score of 656.
Their teammate Tom Crowe managed only 647, but it was enough to put the Americans on course to win the team gold medal. The U.S. team topped the 22-field list with 1,959.
Canada trailed in a distance second after Hermel Volde, Brian Bagnall and Jean-Claude Lacerte orchestrated a total score of 1,926.
The American female archers followed in the footsteps of their male teammates. Michelle Ragsdale and Inga Low scored 656 and 654 after shooting from 70m and 60m to place first and third.
Ragsdale scored 334 from 60m to equal the world record set by Canadian Lilian Jarvis two years ago.
"I believe our team excel at the compound division because we have more experience in that division than the other countries do," Michel King, head coach of the U.S. team, told The Jakarta Post yesterday. King added that the compound division is an American invention dating back to about 1968.
"It's also easier to get high scores with compound bows than the traditional ones which need more physical work," he said.
"The compound bow appears to be more complex and better technologically, and I think that's the reason why more than 80 percent of our archers shoot compound," King added.
South Korea, poised to maintain its Olympic archery gold medals, is not taking part in the compound event. "We have been traditionally playing recurve archery. It's far more difficult than the compound, but we like the challenge," South Korean head coach Lee Ki-sik said. (arf/amd)