Sports briefs

ICE HOCKEY

Hockey fans targeted in Games promotion

The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) said on Wednesday that it plans to promote the 2018 Games to hockey fans during the 2015-16 Asia League Ice Hockey (AL) season.

The committee said it will operate a public photo zone at competition venues in Incheon, Goyang and Anyang in Gyeonggi. The Asia League Ice Hockey season began on Aug. 29 and will continue until April 2016.

Formed in 2003, Asia League Ice Hockey is a professional ice hockey league based in Northeast Asia and includes nine teams from Korea, Japan, China and Russia.

The POCOG said this year will play a significant role in developing ice hockey in the Asian region since the next two upcoming Olympic Winter Games will be held in Northeast Asia ? Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022.

Korea’s ice hockey team will make its Olympic debut after earning an automatic berth as the host country of the 2018 Winter Games.

ARCHERY

Women’s team leads archery test event

The Korean women’s recurve archery team, comprising Ki Bo-bae, Kang Chae-young and Choi Mi-sun, led the qualification round at the Rio 2016 Olympic Test Event on Wednesday.

Ki, the reigning Olympic champion, scored 681 points out of 720 for the 72-arrow, 70-meter ranking round at the Aquece Rio International Archery Challenge in Rio de Janeiro.

She was followed by teammates Kang and Choi, who scored 676 and 671, respectively. As a team, they shot a total of 2028 points to take a top seed.

Meanwhile in men’s, Kim Woo-jin, winner of the Worlds in 2011 and 2015, shot 690 out of a possible 720 points to take the top seed at the Olympic test event.

However, the men’s team, which also includes Oh Jin-Hyek and Ku Bon-chan, missed the 16-team cut after Oh didn’t complete his score card correctly for the last 36 arrows he shot and lost all his points.