July 23, 2021
By Ju-min Park
TOKYO (Reuters) – South Korean women archers took the top three places in qualification on Friday, with one breaking an Olympic record that stood for 25 years along the way, as the team takes aim at the longest gold medal streak at the Olympics.
All 128 archers, 64 women and 64 men, shoot a qualifying round for the individual event. They total their points scores, up to a maximum of 720, and are ranked from top to bottom at the end of the round. Each one’s position after the ranking round becomes their seed for matchplay.
An San topped the field, with the 20-year-old shooting 680 points to beat the record set at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
“I did my best, and that led to good results. I feel nothing but happy,” An told reporters after the round.
South Korea’s female archers hold all the Olympic records and have won every team gold since the first in 1988.
If they win their ninth gold medal in the women’s team event in Tokyo, that will tie the longest gold medal streak in all sports at the Olympic Games.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)