South Korea retains men's archery crown

South Korea retains men's archery crown

JAKARTA (JP): Think of nothing. Let everything runs as light
as the arrow flies. That Zen-like philosophy is the winning
formula of South Korea's new world champion, Lee Kyung-chul.

Lee beat Chinese Taipei's Wu Tsung-yi 109-105 in the gold
medal race of the men's individual Olympic division of the 38th
World Archery Championships yesterday.

While South Koreans celebrated their face-saving win, 13-year-
old American Angela Moscarelli stole the spotlight when she upset
Petra Ericsson of Sweden, 110-108, for the women's individual
compound gold medal. The bronze went to another American, Inga
Low.

"I'm very surprised to win the competition," buoyant
Moscarelli said.

Lee's victory not only confirmed South Korean supremacy in the
prestigious men's Olympic division. It was a "very sweet
compensation", as head coach Lee Ki-sik put it, for the loss of
the women's crown on Friday to the Moldavian archer.

"Our female archers have maintained domination for almost 13
years simultaneously and had to lose it for the first time. It's
too bad," head coach Lee Ki-sik told The Jakarta Post.

"I was empty. Everything was at ease. I didn't even think of
winning the competition, nor was I ever worried when my scores
trailed. I just shot the way I should," an elated Lee said.

The 24-year-old physical education university graduate trained
seven to eight hours everyday during the last three months before
coming to the Jakarta meet.

"It was his best performance," coach Lee noted. The new world
champion, who came fifth in the Asia Cup championships in
Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, in 1993, has been serving in the
army for almost two year now. He trains four hours a day from
Monday to Friday.

"Serving in the army is the best time for him to train. He can
practice everyday," Ki-sik said. He added that his boy is
planning to work after completing his two-and-a half-year
conscription period.

"If Kyung-chul realizes his plan, however, he might lose his
chance to go to the Olympic Games in Atlanta next year because he
won't have much time to train himself."

Ki-sik said that currently South Korea has 20 teams of archers
whose quality is more or less the same as the quality of his
present world championship team. He added that his country has
1,500 archers in all. As an archer, they are paid US$1,500 a
month, Ki-sik said.

Ki-sik acknowledged that this time it was pretty hard for his
archers to notch up a victory in the world championships.

"Han Seung-hoon's victory over Richard McKinney (three time
world champion of the United States) at the 16th final was very
important," Ki-sik said.

"We regarded McKinney as our toughest opponent because he was
at his best here. I could only be assured of our victory after
Han beat him."

Han's win over McKinney was perhaps nerve-wracking for Ki-sik.
The world number 19 managed to tie Han 169-169. Han broke the tie
in the shoot-off. Han scored 10, Kinney 8.

While Kyung-chul attributes his victory to his self-emptying
strategy, Chinese Taipei's Wu Tsung-yi refers his climb from the
number 21, in the qualification round, to the world number two to
a focused mental state.

"Every time I shoot, I try to keep my mind totally focused on
the target," the 23-year-old university student in Chinese
literature and culture, who also made his first debut at the
Jakarta meet, said.

The Hiroshima Asian Games bronze medalist told the Post he was
a bit out of control when shooting his second arrow for only a
seven. Wu cleared his toughest hurdle in the semifinals as he
edged Oh Kyo-moon, who was regarded as the best South Korean
archer by Joe Lin, vice president of the Chinese Taipei Archery
Association. (arf)