South Korean archers Lee Woo-seok (left) and Lim Si-hyeon bite their gold medals during the medal ceremony for the recurve mixed team event at the Asian Games at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Center in Hangzhou, China, Wednesday. (Yonhap)
South Korea grabbed the gold medal in archery's recurve mixed team event at the Asian Games in China on Wednesday.
Lim Si-hyeon and Lee Woo-seok defeated Satsuki Noda and Takaharu Furukawa of Japan by the set score of 6-0 for their first career Asiad gold medal at Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou.
This was also the second archery medal for South Korea on Wednesday, coming about five hours after So Chae-won and Joo Jae-hoon teamed up for silver in the compound mixed team event.
The recurve mixed team event made its Asian Games debut five years ago in Jakarta, and the South Korean team of Lee and Chang Hye-jin finished sixth then.
This was Lim's first Asian Games medal and Lee's third, after his silver medals in the men's individual and team events in 2018.
In the recurve mixed team event, each archer takes two arrows per set, for a total of four arrows and a maximum of 40 points per set for each team. Teams earn two points for a set win and one point for a tie. The first team to five points is the winner.
South Korea won the first set 38-37, with Lee hitting a pair of 10s. In the second set, Japan opened with a 9 and a 10, and Lim hit an 8 with South Korea's first arrow. Japan couldn't take advantage of that opening, as Furukawa hit a 7 with his final arrow. Lim and Lee finished the second set by hitting consecutive 10s for a 37-35 win and a 4-0 set lead.
South Korea then sent Japan packing in the next set, winning 39-35 behind two 10s by Lim.
"It's my first Asian Games gold medal, and it's priceless," Lee said. "Si-hyeon and I played off each other really well. We had a lot of fun together. I want to thank my partner."
The feeling was mutual.
"It's an honor to win my first gold medal with him," she said. "Whenever I got nervous, he took good care of me and helped me get settled down."
This was the first day of medal matches in archery in Hangzhou. The women's and men's compound teams will battle for medals Thursday, followed by the women's and men's recurve teams Friday. All individual finals for both compound and recurve events are set for Saturday.
Lim has reached the gold medal match of the women's individual event scheduled for Saturday and will be up against the reigning Olympic champion from South Korea, An San.
Lee will compete in the men's individual bronze medal match the same day. (Yonhap)
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