Australian archer Kim Sky held off overwhelming South Korea to
lead the men's individual after preliminaries at the Olympic
archery workout unveiled in Beijing on Monday.
Kim Sky nailed down 678 points atop the men's individual table.
South Korea's world champions squad Lee Chang Hwan, Kim Yeon Chul
and Im Dong Hyun locked in the second to fourth places, setting the
pace for the archery powerhouse in team ranking.
Lee scored the same points as Kim Sky, but edged down by
exiguous defect. Kim Yeon Chul and Im Dong Hyun shot down 674 and
673 points apiece.
Relying on overall mightiness, South Korea pulled out 2,025
points in team's bracket, 36 points ahead of the runners-up Japan
in preliminaries, and is believed to extend their momentum to grab
the men's team title.
Kim Sky, world No. 59, fell affection with the venue after
starting sound at the Olympic "Green Archery Field".
"It is very hot in Beijing. Sticky! But the venue is really
good. I love the Green Archery Field," said Kim after
preliminaries. " Good! I'm quite satisfied and I want to win."
Japan's 1,989 points is enough to sweeten the coach and
athletes, while third-placed Russia is disgruntled with their 1,985
points.
"They have done a good job, and have broken the team's record by
10 points. I think we can win medals in both individual and team
events," said Japanese coach Narutoshi Sugiura.
According to Sugiura, Takaharu Furukawa and Ryuichi Moriya had
secured their Olympic berths, who ended the preliminaries in
seventh and 23rd respectively.
"The selection (for Olympic squad) is based on the archers'
performance in daily training and in tournaments. Furukawa and
Moriya will take part in next year's Games and so will (Ryota)
Amano if he keeps doing well in the year to come," added
Sugiura.
Amano took the eighth place in the tournament. Fukukawa put
priorities on adapting next year's peak duel.
"I came here to adapt to the conditions in Beijing, and to
gather experience of high-level competitions so that I can shoot
well next year at the Olympics," said Fukukawa, adding he might
even get gold with some luck.
Russia's coach Stanislav Zabrodskiy anticipates better outcome
from his archers. "I'm not satisfied yet. The result is Ok, but
they could have done better," commented Zabrodskiy.
"They are very tough, really tough. We keep on training and
training very hard."
Zabrodskiy complained about the sweltering weather. "It's very
hot and sticky. Our archers don't have much experience with the
conditions living in Beijing. They find it is hard for them to
adapt to the weather here," said he.
Russia's best performance is Balzhinima Tsyrempilov, who took up
the fifth in 671 points.
Urged by Kim Sky's unlooked-for feat, Australia held the fourth
place in team sequence, followed by Italy and Malaysia.
Host China was extruded to the eleventh place. China's coach Guo
Meizhen reckoned that pressure on archers set barrier in the
tournament.
"The overall performance is Ok, but our men's team did not
perform well. All the athletes are under huge pressure," said
Guo.
Guo admitted China's deficiency against top teams. "There is a
gap between the Chinese team and the world-class teams," added
Guo.
"There is really great pressure on the Chinese team. The
athletes will practise harder hereafter."
There are 113 archers from 27 nations and regions taking part in
the "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic archery test slated for August
20-26.
Most of the top archers attended the tournament in order to
experience the exact Beijing Olympic field and other
Olympics-composing ingredients.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)