(Olympics) S. Korea on target for gold medals in archery, shooting
PARIS, July 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea was on target for two gold medals at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, raising its total to three after just two days of competition.
South Korea edged out China 5-4 in a nervy shoot-off in the final of the women's archery team event, as Jeon Hun-young, Nam Su-hyeon and Lim Si-hyeon brought their country its 10th consecutive Olympic gold in that event.
The women's team competition was added to the Olympics in 1988 in Seoul, and South Korea, the preeminent archery powerhouse, remains undefeated.
South Korea won the first two sets against China, opening up a 4-0 lead and moving within a point of clinching the gold. But China battled back to tied the score at 4-4 and force the shoot-off.
Jeon and Lim each hit a 10 -- both of their 10s were confirmed after a review by the target judge -- and South Korea outscored China 29-27 in the shoot-off.
South Korea's first gold medal of Sunday came from shooting, with Oh Ye-jin beating her teammate Kim Ye-ji in the women's 10-meter air pistol.
Oh, 19, set an Olympic record with 243.2 points, 1.9 points ahead of Kim, to reach the top of the podium in her Olympic debut.
This was the first gold-silver finish by South Korea in an Olympic shooting event in 12 years
South Korea set another Olympic record earlier Sunday, as Ban Hyo-jin scored 634.5 points in the qualification for the women's 10m air rifle event. The 16-year-old will try to become the second South Korean teen to win a shooting medal in the 10m air rifle final Monday.
South Korea has set a modest target of winning five gold medals in France but has already gone past the halfway mark after the first weekend.
In swimming, Hwang Sun-woo, the 2024 world champion in the men's 200m freestyle swimming, missed out on the final in that event.
He finished ninth overall in the semifinals with a time of 1:45.92, coming up 0.04 second back of the eighth and final qualifier, Katsuhiro Matsumoto of Japan.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin reached the semifinals of the mixed doubles in table tennis. They defeated Ovidiu Ionescu and Bernadette Szocs of Romania 4-0 (13-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8) in the quarterfinals.
Lim and Shin, No. 3 seed, will face the top seed from China, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, in Monday's semifinals.
The women's handball team lost to Slovenia 30-23 in its second Group A match Sunday. South Korea will now go up against European giants in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in succession, and will need to grab a few points to have a shot at advancing to the quarterfinals as one of the top four teams in its group.
South Korea came up empty-handed in judo for the second consecutive day. Jung Ye-rin lost in the round of 32 in the women's -52kg event, while An Baul fell in the round of 16 in the men's -66kg. An had won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021.
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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