14 August 2008 - ZHANG (CHN) takes gold to break Korea's 24-year reign

ZHANG (CHN) takes gold to break Korea's 24-year reign  Beijing - 14 August 2008  ZHANG Juan Juan (CHN) broke Korea's 24-year stranglehold on the women's individual event, claiming the gold medal with the last arrow of a riveting final against PARK Sung-Hyun (KOR) at the Olympic Green Archery Field on Thursday.     To win the Olympic title, No. 27 seed ZHANG had to beat all of the top three seeded Korean women, including PARK, the individual gold medallist at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.   ZHANG won the final over PARK 110-109.   In the semi-final, ZHANG took out the No. 1 ranked archer in the world, YUN Ok-Hee, 115-109. ZHANG's score equalled the Olympic record PARK set earlier in the day. In the quarterfinal, she beat JOO Hyung-Jung (KOR) 106-101.     YUN Ok-Hee (KOR) went on to win the bronze medal against KWON Un Sil (PRK) 109-106.   Khatuna LORIG (USA) was fifth, Nami HAYAKAWA (JPN) sixth, JOO seventh and Mariana AVITIA (MEX) eighth.   ONS jf/skh/mr