Seventh straight time!

Korean women archers celebrate after winning a historic seventh-consecutive Olympic gold medal in the team event at Lord’s Cricket Ground London, Monday (KST). They are, from left, Choi Hyeon-ju, Ki Bo-bae and Lee Sung-jin. / Yonhap

Women archers’ Olympic winning streak continues; striker Park scores

Putting behind a slower start to the Summer Games, Korea achieved sweet victories Monday morning (KST) when its women archers won gold in the team event for the seventh-straight time.

And the football team, led by Hong Myung-bo, moved closer to reaching the quarterfinals. In judo, despite controversial officiating, Cho Jun-ho, 24, won bronze in the men’s under-66 kilogram competition.

On Monday, Korea ranked fourth with two golds, one silver and two bronzes with China leading the medal standings with six golds.

Trio Ki Bo-bae, Lee Sung-jin and Choi Hyeon-ju faced off against their Chinese counterparts in the women’s team archery final and edged them 210-209 to claim the Olympic title. Japan took bronze for its first ever medal in the sport.

Hong’s men, seeking the nation’s first-ever Olympic football medal, defeated Switzerland 2-1 thanks to goals from Park Chu-young and Kim Bo-kyung.

Arsenal forward Park opened the scoring with a diving header in the 57th minute, offset by Swiss striker Innocent Emeghara’s strike three minutes later. Another three minutes on, Kim, who recently moved to Cardiff City in England’s Championship, volleyed the winner.

Korea and Mexico, who played out a scoreless draw in their group opener, are on four points in Group B, but Korea is behind on goal difference. Korea can advance to the quarterfinals for only the third time with a draw in the final group game against winless Gabon on Thursday morning.

Cho, who lost to Japan’s Masashi Ebinuma in the quarterfinals after seeing his victory decision overruled, defeated Sugoi Uriarte of Spain for the bronze medal after surviving the repechage round.

In the 200-meter freestyle, swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who failed to defend his title in the men’s 400, reached the final.

In the penultimate race that featured China’s Sun Yang, France’s Yannick Agnel and Park, the Korean came in third with 1 minute 46.02 seconds, which saw him qualify in third, with Sun and Agnel clocking in at 1:45.61 and 1:45.84 respectively.

Park showed he has moved on from his 400-meter disappointment, where he took silver, hours after an earlier false start disqualification was overturned.

In the men’s badminton doubles, world No. 1 duo Lee Yong-dae and Chung Jae-sung cruised to the quarterfinals, while both Kim Kyung-ah and Park Mi-young moved into the round of 16 in the women’s table tennis singles tournament. But Lee, teamed up with Ha Jung-eun, crashed out in the first round of the mixed doubles after falling to Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir.

The women’s field hockey team fell to China 4-0 and Kim Jang-mi failed to qualify for the final in the women’s 10-meter air pistol.

Meanwhile, North Korea claimed two golds to jump to sixth place in the medal table.

An Kum-ae clinched the country’s first Olympic gold medal in the women’s judo 52-kilogram category while weightlifter Om Yun-chol added the nation’s other gold of the day in the men’s judo 56-kilogram competition. <The Korea Times/Kang Seung-woo>

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