PARIS (AP) — A fired-up home crowd couldn’t push France past the South Korean juggernaut in the men’s team archery final.
The first set finished with a score of 57-all, but South Korea took the second 59-58 and the third 59-56 to win 5-1 overall on Monday at Les Invalides.
Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok won the third straight team gold for South Korea.
French fans waved their flags feverishly throughout the final and brought the noise whenever one of their archers hit a 10. Even after things clearly were going South Korea’s way in the third set, the French fans remained engaged.
“While we were facing the French team, there was a lot of cheers from the audience,” South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin said. “That was the biggest challenge.”
Kim Woo-jin was on the past three winning teams but he has not claimed individual gold. He will compete for that on Aug. 4. He also will participate in the mixed team competition on Aug. 2.
“I think that some of my first initial goals are already met because those were my initial targets,” he said. “And now I have my individual games left. But usually, the higher the goals, I think that usually, you have a lot of mistakes. So I will try to relieve my head of all of those goals and try to just focus with my heart.”
It was South Korea’s seventh team gold medal since the sport returned to the Olympics in 1972 – no other nation has won more than once in that span.
Turkey claimed bronze by defeating China 6-2. France and Turkey claimed their first medals since that 1972 return.
Turkey’s Mete Gazoz added to his medal collection — he was the individual gold medalist in Tokyo.
After the loss, French fans cheered loudly when team members Baptiste Addis, Thomas Chirault and Jean-Charles Valladont stepped up to the podium with the Eiffel Tower standing in the distance.
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“It’s true that we’re making history today,” Chirault said. “We have the first silver medal for the men’s team. We had medals in individuals or for women, but this one, we didn’t have it. So now we’re opening the games and we hope to have others after. So we’re very proud to have opened this medal count, if you like, and we are confident. We really want to reproduce this success in the future.”