9 August 2008 - Korean women break Olympic record in ranking round

Korean women break Olympic record in ranking round  Beijing - 9 August 2008 Reigning Olympic Champion PARK Sung-Hyun (KOR)   The Korean women's team set a 216-arrow Olympic archery record and PARK Sung-Hyun (KOR) tied the 72-arrow Olympic record as Korea swept the top three spots in the ranking round at the Olympic Green Archery Field on Saturday.    PARK scored 673 points, combining with Korean teammates YUN Ok-Hee (667) and JOO Hyun-Jung (664) to set an Olympic record of 2,004 points. The mark eclipsed the previous record of 1,994, also set by Korea at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.   Khatuna NARIMANIDZE (GEO) finished in fourth place behind the three Koreans, with her score of 663 only one point behind JOO. NARIMANIDZE was fifth at the 2007 world championships in Leipzig, Germany.   Alison WILLIAMSON (GBR) and Naomi FOLKARD (GBR) led the British team to a surprising second-place ranking by finishing seventh and eighth respectively.   China was expected to finish in second place, but were out-shot by Great Britain by nine points, 1925-1916.    YUAN Shu Chi (TPE), who finished in fourth place individually in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, managed to earn a sixth-place ranking.   Several women finished much lower in the ranking round than expected including Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) in 19th place, Jennifer NICHOLS (USA) in 24th place and ZHANG Juan Juan (CHN), who was 27th.   Natalia VALEEVA (ITA), the reigning world champion from 2007, finished in a lowly 30th place.      ONS jf/jg/skh/mc/rw