Archers Claim Second Straight Men's Team Gold, Defending Status as World's Best

[Anchor]

The national archery team competing at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games secured their second consecutive day of gold medals by winning the men's team event. They will now aim for joint gold medals in the men's and women's individual events taking place today (October 3).

Jeon Yeongmin reports from the site.

[Reporter]

The recurve team's initial goal of sweeping all events fell through from the start.

The women's national team, which had defended the Asian Games summit for 28 years, suffered the shock of being tripped up by India in the team final, dashing their bid for an eighth consecutive title, while the mixed team lost to China in the semifinals and had to settle for a bronze medal.

Facing the crisis of a "no gold" result in team events for the first time in 48 years since the 1978 Bangkok Games, where archery became an official event,

[Dae-han-min-guk!]

Kim Woo-jin, Lee Woo-seok, and Kim Je-deok, who combined for the men's team gold medal at the Paris Olympics, protected the pride of South Korean archery.

After easily defeating Chinese Taipei by taking three straight sets in the semifinals, they grabbed the lead in the second set of the final against India—where a tight balance had been maintained—by landing all of their first three arrows right in the center of the target.

Their momentum broken, the Indian team committed a fatal mistake by shooting their fourth arrow into the 7-ring in the third set, and Kim Woo-jin finished off the match by planting his final arrow in the 9-ring, needing an 8 or higher to secure victory.

Completing two consecutive men's team titles at the Asian Games, the players roared while pointing to the Taegeukgi on their forearms,

[Fighting!]

and basked in their joy atop the highest step of the podium with a celebration signifying their twin titles.

[Kim Woo-jin / National Recurve Archer: Because we continuously achieved good results and only won at international competitions, there was a lot of pressure coming into this year's Asian Games. I feel like I've finally shaken all of that off.]

Having defended their pride with the men's team gold medal, South Korean archery will target joint gold medals in the final men's and women's individual events today.

(Camera Reporter: Kim Se-kyung, Video Editor: Hwang Ji-young, Designer: Kang Yoon-jung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.