Korea 4 for 4 on top seedings in Rio archery competition

Original article by the Olympic News Service at Rio 2016.

Kim Woojin, of Korea, broke the world record in the men's individual archery in Friday's ranking round with a stunning display of nerveless accuracy but had no plans to celebrate – just yet.

In still, sunny conditions, Kim scored 700 of a possible 720 from 72 arrows. This beat the previous mark of 699, set by compatriot Im Dong Hyun in the ranking round at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

“I don't feel really excited about breaking the world record right now because today was just the ranking round and tomorrow [Saturday] I have more important matches,” Kim said.

“I keep practising continuously and do my best every match, that's why I keep this high standard all the time. Tomorrow I have more important matches so I'm not going to celebrate anything today.”

No medals were decided on Friday in the Sambodromo, where 64 men and 64 women lined up to determine the individual and team competition rankings.

Brady Ellison qualified second with 690. David Pasqualucci, the youngest of the Italian men's team, ranked third with 685.

In the men's team competition, the top four spots - all of which receive a bye through to the quarterfinals - were taken by Korea, USA, champions Italy, and Australia, who shot superbly to score 2005 points.

“We held it together really well,” Australia’s Alec Potts said. “As far as we can tell, that's the highest Olympic or world cup combined score we've had as a team. We've been training to get into the top four and to be able to come out and do this is awesome - it shows how good we've been shooting.”

“We came out and we had a goal of being first or second; we're happy with how we executed today,” the USA’s Zach Garrett said, his team's second seeding raising the prospect of a clash with Korea in the gold medal match tomorrow.

The women's ranking round, in much windier conditions, was less high-scoring. Korea’s Choi Misun was first with a score of 669, followed by compatriots Chang Hye Jin (666) and Ki Bo Bae (663), the Olympic champion.

“I see Korea as a challenge, not a threat,” Tan Ya-Ting said, after placing fourth with 656 points. The Chinese Taipei athlete continued: “I think I can make it. I'd really like to shoot against Choi Misun.”

The Korean women will go for an eighth consecutive Olympic team title in Rio and will be seeded first, ahead of Russia, China and Chinese Taipei, respectively.

The Russian women started slowly but went for broke as the wind picked up.

Asked if the team's preparations had been affected by the eligibility issues surrounding Russian athletes at Rio 2016, Russia’s Ksenia Perova said: “No, absolutely not. We trained all the time. Of course, we were worried that we might not be able to compete, but we believe in common sense.”

the competition continues with the men's team finals on Saturday 6 August.

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