Archery: South Korea win women's team title

11 Aug, 2008

South Korea won their sixth women's Olympic team archery title in a row on Sunday, beating China 224-215 to confirm their status as the sport's superpower. Athens champion Park Sung-hyun, world No.1 Yun Ok-hee and Joo Hyun-jung maintained Korea's streak of having won every women's Olympic archery gold medal since 1984.
South Korea set a world record against Italy in the quarter-finals, hammered France in the semis, and were never headed by the Chinese in the gold medal match. France beat Britain by a point to win the bronze medal after driving rain and thunder forced a 15-minute postponement.
"We went into the Games with high hopes and expectations and our hard work really paid off," Park told a news conference. The 25-year-old, who ripped gold from China's grasp with her last arrow four years ago, was in imperious form on Sunday, shrugging off atrocious weather and heckling from the home crowd to lead her team to victory.
Joo came into the Games a virtual unknown outside Korea, but matched her illustrious compatriots arrow for arrow. Ranked 11th in the world, Joo said the South Korean team had prepared for whatever the weather or the Chinese fans could throw at them.

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