Korea secure second archery gold in men's team event

Olympic Sports

Korea secure second archery gold in men's team event

Published: 30 Jul. 2024, 00:48 Updated: 30 Jul. 2024, 00:55

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Korean archers celebrate after beating France in the men's team archery gold medal match at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Paris on Monday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Korea took gold in the men’s team archery at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Monday, topping the podium for the second time in as many days to continue a decades-long dominance in the sport.

Korea, who entered the final as the two-time reigning champions, saw off a challenge from France to take the gold medal, winning 5-1 at the Invalides in Paris.

Korea’s Lee Woo-seok shot a perfect 60 across the three sets, with Kim Je-deok shooting 58 and veteran Kim Woo-jin shooting 57.

France’s Baptiste Addis, Thomas Chirault and Jean-Charles Valladont held Korea to a 57-57 tie in the first set, falling behind 59-58 in the second set and 59-56 in the third set.

Turkey beat China to take third place in the tournament, reaching the archery podium for the first time in Olympic history.

Monday’s result follows a victory for the Korean women’s archery team on Sunday, giving Korea 100 percent of the gold archery medals available in Paris so far. The early individual rounds will now be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, before the mixed team event on Friday, women's individual medal matches on Saturday and men's individual on Sunday.

Korea has dominated Olympic archery for decades, with 29 gold medals — more than double the No. 2 United States' haul — as of press time Monday. Korea has never lost a women's or mixed team event, and the Olympic records in all five archery disciplines are currently held by Korean archers.

Korea won four of five available gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, missing out on only the men's individual title.

Monday’s medal was Korea’s third consecutive men’s team victory, taking the total medal haul in the event to seven out of 10 available gold medals since the team event was introduced in 1988.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]