By Sheila Dang
PARIS (Reuters) – South Korea won their 10th consecutive gold medal in women’s team archery in a nail-biting shoot-off as their three first-time Olympians held off China 5-4 at the Paris Games on Sunday.
The win means South Korea maintained their complete dominance of the event, winning every gold medal since women’s team archery was introduced at the Olympics in 1988. China had to settle for the silver medal and Mexico won bronze.
After winning the first two sets of the match, the South Korean women began to struggle, allowing China to level the score in the next two sets.
Archer Lim Sihyeon acknowledged that her country’s unbroken streak in the event was facing stronger competition, but said South Korea would continue to defend its position.
“I’m very happy about keeping this place in Korean archery history,” she said. “Even though other countries have progressed, we’ll try to keep our place.”
The shoot-off in the gold medal match was made even more intense when two of South Korea’s arrows were reviewed for landing in between two of the scoring rings on the target circle.
The crowd at Esplanade des Invalides, many waving South Korean flags, roared when the shots were awarded the higher point, resulting in the gold medal.
The team were treated like celebrities, as earlier in the day, some fans held signs written in Korean above fences around the venue and stood on tip-toes to get a peak at the athletes.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Paris, editing by Ed Osmond, Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
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