Unstoppable archer An San still on track for historic triple

An San shoots her arrow at the women’s individual round of 64 on Thursday at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo. An eventually won against Marlyse Hourtou of Chad. [YONHAP]

Korean archer An San breezed through the first two rounds of the individual archery competition as she attempts to become the first archer in the history of the Olympics to win three gold medals at a single Games.

An will advance after beating Marlyse Hourtou of Chad and Ane Marcelle Gomes dos Santos of Brazil. Hourtou, one of three athletes from the North African country, took the first set, outscoring An by one point. Undeterred, An took the next three sets in a row to advance to the next round.

In the round of 16, the two archers took one point each, but An was firing with the skill that had already earned her two Olympic gold medals in the last week, shooting a total of six 10s to win the next three sets in a row.

The Tokyo Games is An's first Olympics, but the 20-year-old already has two gold medals: One from the women’s team event, which she won alongside Jang Min-hee and Kang Chae-young, and another from the mixed team event with Kim Je-deok.

Kim was also hoping to win three gold medals — as the winners of the inaugural mixed event, the pair are the first people ever to have a chance to do so — but crashed out of the men's individual competition on Tuesday.

An will next face Ren Hayakawa of Japan at 10:09 a.m. on Friday. Kang also advances to face Yasemin Anagoz of Turkey at 10:48 a.m. on the same day.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]