South Korean archers break three world records
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-08-13 08:38

South Korean archers displayed their super power in archery range with three world records in the ranking round of the Olympic event at the Dekelia Airforce Base on Thursday.

The day's action began with the women's ranking round to determine the seedings for the individual and team competitions. South Korea's women showed they will be the archers to beat in setting new world record marks for both the 72-arrow individual score and the 216-arrow combined team score.

Park Sung Hyun set a new record mark for the women's individual 72-arrow ranking round, scoring 682 points to beat the previous best mark, set by Natalia Valeeva of Italy earlier this year, by just three points.

Im Dong-Hyun of South Korean

The South Korean women finished first, second and third in the 64 athletes field and their combined score smashed the previous team record set by the South Korean team that went on to win gold at the 2000 Olympic Games.

The combined 216 arrow score of Park, Lee Sung Jin and Yun Mi Jin was 2030, 36 points higher than their compatriots scored four years ago.

In the afternoon men's ranking round, Im Dong Hyun claimed South Korea's third archery world record of the day. Im broke the previous men's individual 72-arrow mark, which has stood for nine years, by two points.

The previous best was 685 points, a score achieved by his compatriots Oh Kyo Moon in 1996 and Shim Young Sung in 1995.

Greece's strongest archery hope Evangelia Psarra demonstrated that she is prepared to fight to maintain archery's tradition of the host nation striking gold.

At every Olympic Games since 1980, the host nation has won at least one archery gold medal, a feat unmatched in any other Olympic sport, and Psarra showed encouraging form in finishing eighth in the women's standings.

German archer Cornelia Pfohl, who is 30 weeks pregnant, finished 18th.

The archery event now moves to the Panathinaiko Stadium, the historic home of the modern Olympics,with the women's 1/32 elimination round on Sunday.

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