14 August 2008 - Korean archers aim to sweep women's individual

Korean archers aim to sweep women's individual  Beijing – 14 August 2008 Defending Olympic champion PARK Sung-HYUN (KOR)    The Korean trio of PARK Sung-Hyun, YUN Ok-Hee and JOO Hyun-Jung won the archery women's team event on Sunday and have set their sights on a clean sweep of the women's individual event. Competition starts at 10:30 on Thursday 14 August on the Olympic Green Archery Field.   Favourites   Ø      PARK is trying to become the first archer to successfully defend an individual Olympic title since a new head-to-head format was introduced in 1992. PARK is the No. 1 seed and ranked No. 2 in the world. Ø      YUN tied the 12-arrow Olympic record when she shot a 114 on Tuesday, in the first day of eliminations. YUN poses the greatest threat to her teammate PARK for the gold medal. YUN is the No. 2 seed and ranked No. 1 in the world. Ø      JOO, at 26 years old, shot extremely well in her first Olympics. She is the No. 3 seed and ranked No. 11 in the world.   Challengers   Ø      ZHANG Juan Juan (CHN), a silver medallist in the event on Monday is shooting well and will have the home crowd behind her. Ø      Berengere SCHUH (FRA) played a leading role in France's bronze medal match win over Great Britain in the team event on Sunday. Having shot back-to-back 112s in the 1/32 and 1/16 Elimination Rounds, SCHUH is expected to challenge the Koreans for a medal.   Also...    Ø      Khatuna LORIG (USA) is a four-time Olympian and team bronze medallist from Barcelona 1992 and is back in the Olympics after an eight-year absence. The USA is the third country LORIG has competed for in the Olympics. She competed for the Unified Team in 1992 and Georgia in 1996 and 2000. Ø      Mexico failed to qualify a team for Beijing 2008 but it has two strong women in the individual event, Mariana AVITIA (MEX) and Aida ROMAN (MEX), who could grab a medal. Fourteen-year-old AVITIA, the youngest archer at Beijing 2008 showed age is no barrier to Olympic success when she qualified for the 1/8 elimination round as the No. 20 seed.   ONS jf/jp/bc/ir/ks