South Korean archers set to dominate Olympic workout

BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Korea, an invincible stronghold in archery, is poised to sweep past a "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic test event slated for Aug. 20-26.

South Korea sent the same team which had whopped through the Leipzig outdoor world championships on July 7-15 in Germany. The archery powerhouse lined up Park Sung Hyun, Choi Eun Young and Lee Tuk Young in women's team and Im Dong Hyun Kim Yeon Chul Lee Chang Hwan in men's team.

Im Dong Hyun and Lee Chang Hwan are the man's team champions at the Athens Games. Im Dong Hyun is also a gold medallist at the Doha Asian Games last year.

Park Sung Hyun sounded up as a titlist in women's individual at last Olympics.

The six-person mission completed a feat of grabbing three gold medals out of four on offer in Leipzig. They missed the title in women's individual event in which Park was beaten to second.

South Korea stood out in both team events at the Leipzig world championships. In men's team, South Korea ousted Chinese Taipei 226-221 to snatch the final victory. In men's team, South Korea downed Britain 224-214 to lift the title.

In men's individual, second-seeded Im Dong Hyun, the gold medallist at Doha Asian Games 2006, defeated top seed Tsyrempilov Baljinima from Russia 110-108.

In women's individual, world No. 1 Park Sung-Hyun lost to world No. 2 Natalia Valeeva of Italy 106-108.

Im Dong Hyun aims high after the boosting victory at Leipzig worlds. He is a tough contender to fight against for his composedness besides master-hand.

"I'm really happy!" said IM Dong Hyun after finishing atop of the men's individual. "I was very excited throughout the match as it was very tough. I then tried to shoot the last arrow as calmly as I could and I won.

"Although I was 5-point behind, I kept my concentration and tried to shoot every arrow in the 10. It worked out great.

"We have a tradition of winning in (South) Korea and I was watching archery when I was a kid. I am very proud to carry on the torch. I will now think about Beijing 2008."

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games, South Korean archers would spare nothing to extend their dominance and they accept nothing but winning.

In Beijing, the South Koreans are expected to sweep through the pre-Olympic test event -- International Archery Tournament.

About 113 archers from 27 countries and regions have registered for the "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic archery test run.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) considers the test events to be among the most important stages of Games' preparations and will be watching the 42 "Good Luck Beijing" test events taking place over the next 12 months carefully.