‘Unlucky star’ Lee Woo-seok and ‘scary youngest’ Lee Im-hyun shoot first gold in archery at Hangzhou AG mixed school!

An unlikely star and a fearless youngster teamed up to give Korean archery its first Asian Games gold medal in the mixed event.

Lee Woo-seok (26, Kolon) and Lim Si-hyun (20, Hankuk University) defeated Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa and Satsuki Noda 6-0 (38-37, 37-35, 39-35) in the final of the Hangzhou Asian Games archery recurve mixed event on Thursday at the Fuyang Throat Sports Center Archery Range in Hangzhou, China.

Lee and Lim became the first archery team to win gold at an Asian Games after Joo Jae-hoon (Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power) and So Chae-won (Hyundai Mobis) settled for silver in the compound mixed event earlier in the day. After defeating Vietnam’s Nguyen Duy and Do Thi Anh Nguyet 6-0 in straight sets in the quarterfinals and Indonesia’s Choirunisa Diananda and Salsavilla Riau Ega Agata 6-2 in the semifinals, the Koreans dominated in the final, never dropping a set.

This is the first gold medal for Korean archery in the mixed archery recurve event at an Asian Games. The mixed event was introduced at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. Jang Hye-jin and Lee Woo-seok suffered an early exit in the quarterfinals after a shock loss to Mongolia. Five years later, Lee Woo-seok avenged his humiliation in Jakarta with a different partner.

Lee Woo-seok is a “star of bad luck. Five years ago in Jakarta, he lost to senior Kim Woo-jin (31, Cheongju) in the individual final and settled for silver in the men’s team event. He missed out on gold by a single point because he competed as a member of the armed forces and was not eligible for military benefits. Lee failed to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and watched the “Tokyo myth” of his teammates winning four gold medals from a distance. “Honestly, it was very hard,” he said at the time.

The Tokyo Olympics was both a “pain” and a “motivation” for him. Desperate, Lee qualified for the individual, team, and mixed events by finishing first in the ranking round. After being eliminated in the semifinals of the individual event on the third day, Lee said, “I won’t be an athlete if I stop here,” but he quickly picked himself up and won his first Asian Games gold medal within a day 무지개토토.

If Lee Woo-seok is the “unlucky star,” then the 20-year-old is the “scary youngster. As the youngest member of the women’s team, Im took the top spot in the ranking rounds, beating out senior Ahn An (22-Gwangju Women’s University). She also performed well in the individual competition on the 3rd, advancing to the final, where she will face Ahn on the 7th. With the women’s team event still to come, there is still a chance for a triple crown. In fact, Lim almost didn’t make it to the Asian Games at all. She failed to qualify for the 2022 Asian Games. But when the Games were postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she tried out again, and through a series of twists and turns, she made it to this year’s Games.

Despite their different paths, they had the same goal: to win the first archery gold medal of the Games. They wowed the crowd with their incredible focus in the quarterfinal match against Indonesia, winning the first and fourth sets with perfect scores (40 points). Their final opponents were Japan, who had beaten Iran in the semifinals. Japan are the defending champions, having won the last edition in Jakarta. Lee Woo-seok and Lim Si-hyun took a 38-37 lead in the first set against Takaharu Furukawa and Satsuki Noda. Lim scored the first shot of the second set at 8, but Furukawa scored 7 and Lee Woo-seok nailed his fourth arrow at 10 to take the second set 37-35. Neither the pressure nor the wind could shake Lee Woo-seok and Lim Si Hyun. They scored a game-high 39 points in the third set to win the gold medal with a 6-0 victory over Japan, who only managed 35 points. After the win, they looked at each other, smiled broadly and high-fived.