Korean archeresses establish new world record in team event

Korea¡¯s unrivaled archers swept the preliminary rounds of the both men¡¯s and women¡¯s individual events in the Sydney Olympics by demonstrating their talents overwhelming players of other countries.

Korean archeresses took the first, second and fourth places, while archers first, second and third in the ranking rounds of the individual competition that started at 9 a.m. (7 a.m., Korean time), on Saturday, and broke the total team points they set up in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

¡°Housewife archeress¡¯¡¯ Kim Soo-Nyung scored 671 points for the first place, edging Natalia Valiva of Italy who shot 667 points.

The Barcelona Olympics gold medalist Kim¡¯s 671 points are only two points behind the world record of 673 set up by Korea¡¯s Kim Kyung-Wook in 1996.

Kim fought a neck-and-neck match with the Italian archeress in the early stage of the contest, but soon took the comfortable leadership by displaying her unique concentration.

Kim hit the bull¡¯s eye for 10 points for 33 times of her total 72 to the exclamation of athletes of other countries and spetators.

After Kim, Kim Nam-Soon of Inchon City Hall shot 662 points for the third place and Yun Mi-Jin of Kyonggi Physical High School scored 661 points for the fourth place, making bright the prospect for Korea¡¯s winning medals in the sport.

In the men¡¯s individual competition preliminaries, Oh Kyo-Moon fihsied first with 338 points, followed by his teammates Chang Yong-ho, runner-up, and Kim Chung-Tae, first runner-up.

Kim Soo-Nyung will compete in the contest of 62 that begins at 9 a.m., Sunday.

Kim Sang-Soo ssoo@donga.com