South Korean archer Woo-jin sets world record

South Korea's Kim Woo-jin shows the No.1 sign after his round

By AP

Published: Sat 6 Aug 2016, 10:50 PM

Last updated: Sun 7 Aug 2016, 12:54 AM

There was nothing the least bit shaky about South Korean archer Kim Woo-jin's world-record performance at the Olympics.
He was in such a rhythm that a wobbly piece of plywood the competitors stood on to shoot failed to even distract him.
Kim set a recurve world record with a score of 700 on Friday during the qualifying round of archery at the Rio de Janeiro Games. A perfect score is 720, with archers shooting a total of 72 arrows. The results of the qualifying round are used determine the seedings for the bracketed tournament next week.
Of Kim's 72 arrows, 52 were in the 10 ring, which is the highest score. He didn't have an arrow score below a nine.
Still, he didn't have time to revel in his feat. There's a team competition the following day and his focus was on medals, not records. "Today, it doesn't feel that important," Kim said through a translator. His fellow competitors were impressed enough for him:
- "Really, really fantastic," David Pasqualucci of Italy said.
- "He was perfect. It's a big incentive for me, to go further, to go higher and higher," Marcus D'Almeida of Brazil said.
- "The fact he shot a 700 is amazing," said Brady Ellison of the United States, who finished second in qualifying with a score of 690. "Should've been five or six points higher, too."
In Ellison's opinion, that's because of a creaky surface. There was scaffolding on the ground and on top of that was a thin piece of plywood. It tended to shift each time someone moved in the long line of shooters. "It's not enough to really, really hurt you, or enough to make a huge complaint about it. But I do believe it cost the whole field a few points," said Ellison, who combined with teammates Zach Garrett and Jake Kaminski to finish second as a team behind the South Koreans in qualifying. "Kim's (score) is just really impressive."
In women's qualifying, South Korea's Choi Misun was on Olympic-record pace until a breeze picked up in the middle of the competition. She finished with a score of 669.