14-Year-Old Kang Yeon-seo Defeats Park Jung-yoon to Win Bronze in Women's Compound Archery Individual

Fourteen-year-old Kang Yeon-seo (Seongsa Middle School) claimed the bronze medal in the women's compound archery individual event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games after defeating national team senior Park Jung-yoon (Changwon City Hall) in an all-Korean showdown.

Kang defeated Park 145-143 in the women's compound individual bronze medal match held on the 1st at the multi-purpose plaza of Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Kang, who first picked up a bow during an introductory class in elementary school and was selected as the youngest-ever national archery team member in April, added an individual bronze medal to the team bronze she won at her debut Asian Games.

The compound individual event is decided by the total score of 15 arrows.

Kang, who shot a perfect 150 points consecutively in the round of 32 and round of 16 on September 27, defeated Wunier of China 145-140 in the quarterfinals earlier in the day. However, she was edged out 143-147 by Nurisa Dian Ashripa of Indonesia in the semifinals, dropping her to the bronze medal match.

Park defeated Malaysia's Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh 145-139 in the quarterfinals, but suffered a narrow 141-142 defeat to Amaya Amparo Cojuangco of the Philippines in the semifinals, setting up the bronze medal match against Kang.

This marks the first time that a South Korean archer failed to reach the final in the women's compound individual event since it was introduced at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

At the 2014 Incheon Games, Choi Bo-min and Seok Ji-hyun squared off in the women's individual final, winning the gold and silver medals respectively, while So Chae-won secured a silver medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Games held in 2023.

The individual event was not held at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

In the bronze medal match, Kang took a 30-29 lead by shooting three 10s in the first end, and extended her advantage to 59-57 after the second end.

In the third end, Park shot three 10s while Kang scored one 9, narrowing the score to 88-87, but Kang restored a two-point lead at 116-114 in the fourth end.

Both athletes scored 29 points in the fifth end, allowing Kang to maintain her two-point lead and secure the medal.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.