The South Korean archery team has made a strong start toward sweeping all gold medals by breaking tournament records in the recurve ranking rounds at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

Kang Chae-young (Hyundai Mobis) advanced to the main elimination rounds in first place today (September 26) after scoring 685 points out of a possible 720 in the women's recurve ranking round held at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Ground in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

Kang displayed peak form by breaking the Asian Games tournament record.

Fellow South Korean teammate Oh Ye-jin (Gwangju Bank Tenten Archery Club) finished third with 678 points, and Lee Yun-ji (Hyundai Mobis) placed fourth with 677 points, putting all South Korean athletes at the top of the standings.

In the women's team ranking round, combining the scores of the three athletes, South Korea also established a new tournament record with a total of 2,040 points, comfortably outdistancing China (1,992 points) to claim first place.

In the men's recurve event, Kim Je-deok (Yecheon County Office) ranked second with 693 points.

Lee Woo-seok (Kolon X-Ten Boys) placed fourth with 687 points, and Kim Woo-jin (Cheongju City Hall) finished sixth with 684 points.

Fueled by the steady performances of the three athletes, the South Korean men's team set a tournament record with a total of 2,064 points in the team event, edging out India (2,039 points) to secure first place.

The recurve mixed team ranking round, which combined the scores of the top-ranked individual male and female archers Kim Je-deok and Kang Chae-young, also firmly maintained first place by setting a tournament record with a total of 1,378 points.

As a result, South Korea swept the top seeds in the men's, women's, and mixed recurve team events.

The strong performances of the South Korean archers continued in the compound ranking rounds that followed.

In the men's individual event, Choi Yong-hee (Hyundai Steel) shot 711 points to finish third behind China's Liao Jiahao and Liu Jin (both with 712 points).

Kim Jong-ho (Hyundai Steel) and Choi Eun-gyu (Ulsan Nam-gu Office) both scored 706 points, but were separated by the number of 10s, placing eighth and tenth, respectively.

In the men's team event, South Korea finished second with a total of 2,123 points behind China (2,130 points).

In the women's compound individual event, Park Jung-yoon (Changwon City Hall) ranked third with 702 points, Kang Yeon-seo (Bucheon G-Sports) placed fourth with 701 points, and Park Ye-rin (Korea National University of Education) came in 24th with 693 points.

In the women's team event, South Korea marked third place with a total of 2,096 points, trailing China and India (both with 2,099 points).

In the compound mixed team event featuring the highest-scoring male and female archers, Choi Yong-hee and Park Jung-yoon combined for 1,413 points, securing the third seed for the main rounds just one point behind India (1,414 points) based on the number of inner 10s.

(Photo provided by Korea Archery Association, Yonhap News)