Korean visit to Nimes successful: leave with five of six recurve medals

Perfection is difficult to beat. Even if you’re an Olympic Champion.

MIN Byeong Yeon shot nine straight arrows into the 10. Three perfect sets of 30 points was enough to dispatch his Hyundai Steel professional teammate and Korean compatriot OH Jin Hyek in the recurve men’s gold medal match.

OH, winner of the London 2012 Olympic Games, dropped as many points in the three sets of the final as he did in the entire 60-arrow ranking round: four. He was nothing but excited for his opponent after the match.

Grabbing MIN’s hand, OH pointed to the younger – but equally as impressive – archer, grinned and presented the Nimes 2015 recurve men’s champion to the crowd.

The women’s final was also between two Koreans: Hyundai Mobis’ KIM Eun Jung and KIM Min Jung.

At 5-3 and with the former KIM finding her groove in the fourth set with a 10-10-10 series, a tight finish was looking likely. But when the trailing athlete missed her final arrow (she came off the line smiling), her fate was sealed. Gold to KIM the latter (Min Jung).

Both Korean winners were typically pragmatic about the approach to shooting under the lights and sounds of a live indoor show: as soon as stepping on the line, focusing on nothing but the target.

“It’s a new experience, but my coach prepared me well,” said MIN.

KIM Jaeh Yeong completed a podium clean sweep for Hyundai Steel. His first arrow against three-time outdoor World Cup Champion Brady ELLISON landed in the nine. The following 14 were all 10s.

States archer Brady matched the Korean in the third but shot five nines over the same period to concede bronze three set points to seven.

KIM’s win secured a Korean clean sweep of the recurve men’s medals.

It would not be a Korean top three in the women’s event, with Dane Randi DEGN and Italy’s Elena TONETTA contesting bronze. Randi took it, 6-2 after shooting 29, 28 to finish, while TONETTA could only muster sets of 26 and 27.

See results from Nimes 2015.