By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

South Korea won a pair of gold medals at the Athens Olympics on Friday with wins in the women’s archery team event and the men’s doubles in badminton while also added two more silvers.

The women’s archery trio of Park Sung-hyun, Yun Mi-jin and Lee Sung-jin clinched the gold medal in the team event on the seventh day of the Olympics, completing the sweep of the women’s competition after Wednesday’s individual title by Park.

The team edged out China by 241-240 for the country’s fifth straight gold in the event since 1988, when it was first introduced to the Summer Olympics.

Though South Koreans swept the top three positions in the ranking round, the team had to get through some nervous moments until Park’s hit the bull’s eye for a 10 with her final arrow.

In the final match, which consists of three nine-arrow ends, the trio started to build their lead from the first end at 54-51. But China gradually closed the gap as Lee Sung-jin only recorded 25 points twice in the second and third end.

With only three arrows left for South Korea’s last shooter Park in the last end, China ended with 240, 26 points ahead of their opponents. When Park scored a nine and an eight with her first two arrows China’s Zhang Juanjuan started to dance in joy as if her team had won the match. But then Park ended Zhang’s little performance by hitting the center circle for the one-point victory.

With the gold in singles event she won on Wednesday, Park became the first multiple gold medallist for South Korea in Athens. Four years ago in Sydney, Yun was the only South Korean with two golds by winning the same events.

Chinese Taipei grabbed the bronze as they beat France 242-228 in the consolation match. Korea beat France in the semifinals by 249-234.

In badminton, the men’s pair of Kim Dong-moon and Ha Tae-kwon beat compatriots Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung in straight sets for the country’s fifth gold medal.

Knowing each other very well as they play for the same club _ Samsung Electro-Mechanics _ Kim and Ha strolled to a 15-11, 15-4 victory. It was the country’s first in the men’s doubles event since 1992 when Park Joo-bong and Kim Moon-soo won in Barcelona. Also the medal was compensation for Kim after he lost in the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles competition where he and Ra Kyung-min were considered the heavy favorites.

Kim and Ha had placed third four years ago in Sydney, while Yoo and Lee won the silver medal.

Lee Eun-sil and Seok Eun-mi claimed the silver medal in the women’s doubles table tennis event earlier in the day.

In the final match, Lee and Seok were overwhelmed by the Chinese pair of Zhang Yining and Wang Nan, losing in straight sets.

Zhang and Wang, ranked first and second by the International Table Tennis Federation, needed only 27 minutes to claim four sets for the gold medal. Seok and Lee, winners at the 2002 Pusan Asian Games, held their own in the first set when they closed to 10-9, but struggled the rest of the way getting less than seven points in each of the following sets.

In the bronze medal match, Kim Kyung-ah and Kim Bok-rae were defeated by Guo Yue and Niu Jianfeng of China in a seven-set thriller.

The two Kims used their defensive skills and various downspins to drive the match into a neck-and-neck battle and tied it at 9-9 in the final set. But after a timeout call, Guo, who had her 16th birthday last month, made two bold attacks to take the final set and the medals from the Koreans.

In badminton, Sohn Seung-mo secured more at least a silver medal in the men’s singles event as he beat Soni Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in three sets.

After claiming the first set 15-6, Sohn yielded the second 15-9, but remained aggressive in the third set, beating the Indonesian 15-9.

With the victory Sohn became the first South Korean to reach the men’s singles final.

However, the women’s doubles pair of Ra Kyung-min and Lee Kyung-won lost to Zhang Jiewen and Yang Wei of China in straight sets. The pair will play for the bronze medal today at 15:00.

The women’s volleyball team secured a berth in the quarterfinals as they shut out rivals Japan to improve their record to 3-1 in Group A. Ku Min-jong led the way with 15 points and Jung Dae-young added 14. The team will have their last preliminary match on Sunday against Brazil.

In shooting, Lee Hye-jin placed at fifth with 681 points in the women’s 50-meters rifle three-position event. After ending the qualifying round fifth with 584 points, Lee failed to raise her position as she shot 97 points in the final round, second worst among the final eight shooters.

The women’s basketball team had another nightmare on Friday as they lost to the Czech Republic by a score of 97-75. With the loss, the team remained at the bottom of the six-team Group B with four losses.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr