Records fall as London Games get underway
Source: Agencies |
July 28, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
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ARCHERY superpower South Korea delivered a stinging reminder of its strength yesterday with two world records on the opening day of the London Olympics.
Im Dong-hyun, who lost the world No. 1 ranking to American Brady Ellison in 2011, shot 699 to break his own 72 arrow world record in the men's ranking round, and combined with Oh Jin-hyek and Kim Bub-min to set a new team record of 2,087.
Kim's score of 698 would also have broken the previous world record of 696, while Oh brought up the rear on 690. Archers can score a maximum of 10 points per arrow by striking the gold circle at the centre of the target.
The United States, currently the world's No. 1 team and pre-Olympic favorites for gold in London, finished the day ranked fourth behind France and China.
Im, who has strong myopia and has to aim at a 'blob' of color on the target 70 meters away, was pleased to finish top of the ranking round but was characteristically cool on how the competition would play out.
"It's only the first round so I won't get too excited about it," he said.
Korea head coach Jang Young-sool was pleased with the scoring on a damp day at Lord's cricket ground, and said that while it was no problem to shoot in the drizzling rain it was a challenge to keep track of the changing conditions. "You can't really expect to break the world record but it's not a big shock or surprise," he said. "It was good scoring conditions today, we'll just rest and then get ready for the team competition tomorrow."
South Korea's men have won the team titles at the last three Games but never the individual Olympic gold medal.
Ideal conditions
Kim Soo-nyung, who won the individual women's gold in 1988 and three Olympic team golds, said the conditions were ideal for high scores. "Most world records are set in this kind of weather. Im, and the whole Korean team, have a lot more confidence now. You could see it today, they look a lot more confident and they believe they can do it."
Meanwhile, spectators were angry and confused after being turned away from Lord's in the first major spectator glitch for the host city. Preliminary rounds were listed as unticketed and several thousand spectators showed up at the venue expecting to get in for free. Organizers said tickets were not advertised or sold for the qualifying events and "we have always made it clear" that the early competitions were not open for spectators.
Im Dong-hyun, who lost the world No. 1 ranking to American Brady Ellison in 2011, shot 699 to break his own 72 arrow world record in the men's ranking round, and combined with Oh Jin-hyek and Kim Bub-min to set a new team record of 2,087.
Kim's score of 698 would also have broken the previous world record of 696, while Oh brought up the rear on 690. Archers can score a maximum of 10 points per arrow by striking the gold circle at the centre of the target.
The United States, currently the world's No. 1 team and pre-Olympic favorites for gold in London, finished the day ranked fourth behind France and China.
Im, who has strong myopia and has to aim at a 'blob' of color on the target 70 meters away, was pleased to finish top of the ranking round but was characteristically cool on how the competition would play out.
"It's only the first round so I won't get too excited about it," he said.
Korea head coach Jang Young-sool was pleased with the scoring on a damp day at Lord's cricket ground, and said that while it was no problem to shoot in the drizzling rain it was a challenge to keep track of the changing conditions. "You can't really expect to break the world record but it's not a big shock or surprise," he said. "It was good scoring conditions today, we'll just rest and then get ready for the team competition tomorrow."
South Korea's men have won the team titles at the last three Games but never the individual Olympic gold medal.
Ideal conditions
Kim Soo-nyung, who won the individual women's gold in 1988 and three Olympic team golds, said the conditions were ideal for high scores. "Most world records are set in this kind of weather. Im, and the whole Korean team, have a lot more confidence now. You could see it today, they look a lot more confident and they believe they can do it."
Meanwhile, spectators were angry and confused after being turned away from Lord's in the first major spectator glitch for the host city. Preliminary rounds were listed as unticketed and several thousand spectators showed up at the venue expecting to get in for free. Organizers said tickets were not advertised or sold for the qualifying events and "we have always made it clear" that the early competitions were not open for spectators.
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