By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

The goddess of archery did not betray South Korea. In the women’s individual event held at Panathinaiko Stadium on Wednesday, Park Sung-hyun and Lee Sung-jin claimed the first and second places, giving South Korea its sixth straight gold medal in the event since 1984.

Park, 21, shot 110 points in the 12-arrow final, edging out Lee by two points for the gold medal. Both were tied at 100 points when they took their last shots and Park hit a 10 to put the pressure on Lee. The 19-year-old then tried to focus on the target, but appeared bothered by a shout from the crowd and hit an eight to end the match.

As South Korea’s three archers of Park, Lee and Yun Mi-jin swept the top three berths in the ranking round, the event was expected to be an all-Korean affair. However, the beginning was not so smooth for South Korea, as Yun, the winner of individual and team events four years ago in Sydney, lost to Yuan Shu Chi of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals 107-105.

With the reigning champ eliminated from the tournament, the next Korean to step up Lee Sung-jin looked unstable in her game with Wu Hui Ju, but managed to beat Wu 104-103 as the Taiwanese hit two sevens in her last five shots.

Park was unarguably the best archer of the day, as she scored a daily-best 111 points in the quarterfinal match against Evangelia Psarra of Greece. Lee was then the first to reach the final as she prevailed over Yuan in the semifinals 104-98 and Park joined her compatriot by beating Alison Williamson of Britain 110-100.

Park amazed the crowd when her seventh arrow smashed the mini camera set in the dead center of the target.

In judo, Hwang Hee-tae failed to get a medal in the men’s -90kg class after reaching the semifinals. After losing to Japan’s Hiroshi Izumi, Hwang fell to Khasanbi Taov of Russia in the bronze medal match.

Hwang beat defending Olympic champion Mark Huizinga of the Netherlands by a Koka in the round-of-16 and then topped Keith Morgan of Canada in the quarterfinals with two Waza-aris.

But the 26-year-old judoka met the biggest obstacle in the semifinal _ Izumi. Neither athlete were able to gain a clear advantage until Izumi threw Hwang for a Waza-ari with only six seconds left.

In volleyball, Chang So-youn led the women’s team for a 3-0 win over Kenya in their third Group A match. The team now has two wins and a loss.

The women’s basketball team continued to suffer in Group B, as they were pounded 80-57 by the United States. South Korea once had the lead in the first quarter at 23-20, but couldn’t keep the momentum as they were outrebounded 40-19.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr