South Korea is looking to sweep the gold medals in recurve archery at this year’s Asian Games. However, Taiwan has emerged as a threat to spoil that bid.
At the most recent Archery World Cup in Berlin last weekend, South Korean recurve archers collected two gold, three silver and one bronze. But Taiwan matched South Korea in the gold medal count. It is thanks to its victory over the Asian giant in the men’s team and mixed team events.
South Korea has long dominated archery in Asian Games and leads all nations with 38 gold medals. The next closest pursuer is Japan with seven. Taiwan has netted just one gold so far.
But the Korea Archery Association is wary of Taiwan’s recent rise. More so, they feel the country has improved under the tutelage of South Korean coach Koo Ja-chung. He is a former world champion and 1986 Asian Games gold medalist.
Korea’s competition in the Asian Games
“We feel Taiwan has become our biggest rival at the Asian Games,” a South Korean federation official said. “Japan is also taking big steps, with an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
South Korea has swept up four recurve gold medals. They won men’s and women’s individual, and men’s and women’s team — on four occasions: 1990, 1998, 2006 and 2010.
For this year’s Asian Games, they added a mixed team event for five gold medals at stake in recurve. The Asian games will be at Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia, from Aug. 18-Sept. 2,
Compound became a medal discipline in 2014. Of course, there will be three gold medals at stake there in men’s team, women’s team and mixed team. Granted, all of the participating countries have such powerful teams. It will be a very exciting year. Of course, odds for sports betting is already underway, as proof to how excited people are for the Asian Games.
