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South Korea gets third straight men's team archery gold

Society Materials 11 August 2008 15:55 (UTC +04:00)

World ranking leader Im Dong-Hyun led South Korea to a third straight men's team event archery Olympic gold on Saturday as the sport's superpower remained on course towards a sweep of all gold medals on offer at the Beijing Games, dpa reported.

Im, Lee Chang-Hwan and Park Kyung-Mo defeated the Italian trio of Ilario di Buo, Marco Galiazzo and Mauro Nespoli 227-225.

Im was also on the winning 2004 team and success came the day after the women's team maintained its perfect Olympic record with a sixth title since the event was introduced 1988 in Seoul.

"I was ok even though it was a close match," said Park, while Im said "the cooperation in our team was very good. That is part of why we won."

Host China edged Ukraine 221-219 to take the bronze.

South Korea could sweep all archery events for the first time in Beijing if they also win the individual events. While the women have dominated their event a Korean man has never won the individual title.

But Park expressed his optimism that the jinx could end on Friday, with the support of the large number of Korean fans in the arena.

"The Korean spectators became my strength. The atmosphere made me believe that I can get the gold medal in the men's individual," he said.

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