Category Archives: korean

A clean sweep for Korea?

25 January, 2016

sharks

This week Dutch sports information firm Infostrada published predictions for every medal at Rio 2016 on their ‘Virtual Medal Table‘. For the first time (apparently) they have predicted a clean sweep of four gold medals for Korea in the archery – men’s and women’s team gold, and Ki Bo Bae and Kim Woojin predicted to take top honours in August. To save you going through it, their full predictions for ‘our thing’ are right here:

Women’s Team

Korea
Russia
India

Men’s Team

Korea
USA
Italy

Women’s Individual

Ki Bo Bae
Choi Misun
Lin Shih-Chia

Men’s Individual

Kim Woojin
Rick Van Der Ven
Lee Seungyun

The methodology is based around major competitions, world ranking, and past results heavily weighted toward previous Olympic success, which seems reasonable – for most sports. Unfortunately, our thing is reliant on peak performance and subject to considerable variance. It should be remembered that Infostrada are a commercial outfit who rely on headlines and just a little controversy to sell their products – and they’ve been wrong before.

I suspect the actual archery medal table will look a little different. Rick Van Der Ven’s nod seems to be based on his world ranking and Copenhagen performance. He’s a great champion and a great performer, but I’m not sure I’d pick him for an Olympic medal this year – although I’d be incredibly happy to see him prove me wrong.

The team picks ignore clear and present dangers from China on both sides, Chinese Taipei on the men’s and Japan on the women’s side – and perhaps half a dozen other squads who could very easily produce a last four run. The individual titles have seen many extraordinary peak performances and unexpected victories over the years. It seems entirely possible we’ll see something similar again.

Finally: the great white sharks. It seems very unlikely Korea won’t be taking home at least a clutch of medals, but none of the four named Koreans are guaranteed a place on the squad – they will all have to fight for a place at their internal selection tournament in April: by some distance, the toughest recurve tournament on the planet.

Also, the national stakes ratchet ever higher. The enormous pressure to win appeared to get to the Korean men’s team at the Asian Games in 2014, and they only ended up with bronze. The conditions and humidity in Rio perhaps don’t really suit squads used to temperate climes – there were issues raised during the test tournament, and the whole lot of them are on extended acclimatisation training in Sao Paulo of this writing. Naturally, no expense or effort will be spared to try and bring the goods home back to Seoul, but could the pressure be too much?

As for Ki Bo Bae’s frequently stated ambition to win back-to-back Olympic titles – something no-one has ever done – it would almost certainly be the greatest target archery achievement of all time. We’ll see. 🙂

Stay tuned for a full Olympic picks piece later on this year.

More on Infostrada and their medal predictions here.

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Oh: “I will accomplish all your goals.”

19 January, 2016

Click here to watch the video if it doesn’t appear above.

The Korean sports press have started the Rio hype early, and have been pulling in all their best prospects for a quote – however reluctant. Here’s what Oh Jin-Hyek had to say:

“So… erm…the last 4 years flew by quickly since London.”

Q. What’s the goal for Rio 2016?

“All athletes, myself included, are facing the most important tournament this year. We will prepare strongly and hope to accomplish all the goals for Korea.”

Q. What’s your strategy for the Olympics?

“The rules have changed this time round and there is an introduction of sets in the group competitions.

So, we need to focus on finishing matches in the fastest time possible. There is also the possibility of further rule changes after Rio, so it might be the last chance to achieve our goal.”

Q. What’s your personal goal for Rio?

“Well, the end of my professional career is always on the back of my mind, and perhaps I would like to end it sooner rather than later. Whatever I decide, I would like to save the best possible result till the end.”

Q. Can you give everyone a message for the New Year and your resolution for the Olympics?

“Hello, I’m Oh Jin-Hyuk , a professional archer. It is the year for the Rio Olympics 2016. This summer, the national team including myself will compete to the highest standard and we look forward to your support!”

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ki bo bae 기보배

“After Rio comes Tokyo. I want to make it to the Tokyo Olympics.”

30 December, 2015

SEOUL: Newsis. Ki Bo Bae: “I’m shooting 450 arrows day preparing for the Rio Olympics. But right now, the national selection tournament is more nerve-jangling than Rio.”

During an interview that took place this 22^nd December at Korea National Training Center Archery Field, ‘Empress of Archery’ Ki Bo Bae (27 years old, Gwangju City Hall), a double gold medalist of archery at the 2012 London Olympics and Gwangju Summer Universiade, had this to say:

“The Brazil Olympics is due for next year, but the national selection tournament is first in line. I’m trying my best to cope with the anxiety I get from thinking about all of the talented archers that I will be competing against in that tournament.”

“To take part in this competition is extremely tough. It lasts for 6 to 7 days, so the score of the day is entirely dependent on my condition. I can never lose my focus and tension, and I’m nervous at every moment.”

“When I’m in the national team, I have the tendency to put all of my concentration on the score, leading me to overlook many other aspects of being an athlete: but I fixed all those aspects when I was eliminated from the national team (in 2014)”, stated Ki.

“After leaving the national team, I felt rather refreshed. You’re like a hamster running on its wheel: the Olympic village life kept repeating on an ongoing cycle, from early morning to night. It was very exhausting, so life outside of training was free as free could be. These things actually were good to release all of my energy, and I had a great time.”

Ki mentioned, “For this year, there were many, many shoot-offs in the national tournament. In preparation for this, I also had to work on my shoot-offs.”

The set rule is changing for the team match, with Rio marking its first Olympic start. Due to many matches ending in a draw, a shoot-off in which results an overtime match will be very important. When each player shoots an arrow and a tie is given as the score, the archer who shoots closer to the centre takes the win. Through training simulation, the national team is practicing concentration – and in the complicated selection process procedure around 8% of the total final score will be based on shoot-off performance.

“The Olympics that come every four years may not last long, but it’s not like that for the players. It’s where I’m playing as a national representative, therefore making it a place I want to achieve everything I couldn’t (elsewhere).”

Continuing, Ki said, “In time for winter, I’m spending a lot of time on weight training and fitness-orientated training. With the help of psychological counselling, I’ve also been trying to deal with the pressure increasing as the match approaches.”

When we asked about the struggles of having to train in the bitterly cold weather, Ki replied, “We train indoors where a hole is punctured through a window covered in plastic, which means it’s not cold enough for your hands to freeze up. The environment is organized so that the archers train well, so practicing is pain-free.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: it’s not pain-free for everyone)

Considering that this is Ki’s second Olympic experience, we questioned whether she’s willing to make more appearances in any future competitions. With strong determination, Ki stated firmly: “After Rio comes Tokyo. I want to make it to the Tokyo Olympics.”

At least reading the press, there seems to be a particularly brutal, tough-it-out approach to winter training among Korean Olympic athletes, with temperatures in Seoul only a few degrees above zero. Plus if I have parsed this right, the whole squad are being sent up a freezing mountain again for New Year’s Day – just like last year.

Via this news piece from Newsis. Thanks to Jessica Cho.

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Gwanju Universiade ki bo bae 기보배

Archery at the Gwangju Universiade 2015

6 July, 2015

Picture: Yonhap News

GWANGJU, KOREA: As with last year’s Asian Games, the prospect of a near-guaranteed medal avalanche on home turf meant that the organisers and the KAA threw every resource at this competition, building a brand new oversize stadium. The home squad didn’t disappoint in the ranking and knockout rounds, and made almost every final in both recurve and compound.

But after Ki Bo Bae’s spectacular smashing of the 70m round world record on Saturday – breaking Park Sung-Hyun‘s record by four points, giving great quotes and sending the Korean media into overdrive – the rest of the shoot at the biannual University Games almost had an air of anticlimax. The home nation sending out an almost full-strength national recurve side did seem slightly bullish towards the spirit of the event, although they are all apparently studying somewhere and well within the age criteria, and the competition featured other grizzled pros like Natalia Avdeeva.

On compound finals day, Korea delivered in spades, taking four of the six golds on offer. Kim Jongho became Korea’s first Universiade triple gold medallist. In the women’s individual gold match, Toja Cerne nearly denied Song Yun Soo in a tight shootoff, but came up a few millimetres short. Russia denied the USA women top honours in a minor upset.

On a sold-out recurve day, the ever-lurking threat of Chinese Taipei was the only major challenge to the great white sharks. The men’s team unfortunately threw down too many eights to do any serious damage to the Koreans, with Lee Seungyun shooting completely clean with six tens – afterwards, he laconically stated: “I think being the last shooter brought out the best in me.” Lee followed up by burying teammate Ku Bonchan 6-0 in the men’s individual final to cap a spectacular 2015 return to form.

However, Chinese Taipei took unexpected revenge in the women’s team final, with a strong squad anchored by Tan Ya-Ting, a multiple World Cup medallist who finished above the Korean women at the top of the ranking round in Antalya this year. The women in blue took the opening set after Kang “The Destroyer” Chae-Young and Choi Misun both sent down eights. Choi leaked a seven in the third set to make it 4-2. Despite Ki Bo Bae finding a fourth ten, they split the points in the last to give Chinese Taipei the victory.

In the individual matches, Maja Jager squeaked past Mei Chen-Hsiung in a shootoff for the women’s bronze. Her second podium finish in two major events (she took silver at Baku 2015) bodes well for a serious defence of her title at the upcoming world championships. For the gold, Ki Bo Bae and Choi Misun contested their third major podium match of the year in a high-quality final that saw every arrow in five sets hit the yellow, with a perfect end from each archer. Despite Choi drilling a staggering seven tens in a row, it went down to a shootoff. Ki Bo Bae edged it out, taking a 6-5 victory to a roaring crowd and doing her bit to leave the home nation sitting proudly at the top of the medal table.

Full results are here via IANSEO: http://www.ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=538

Article about the record breaking 70m round here.

Thanks to Yonhap News for the quote.

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archery blog archery blogging ki bo bae Korean archery recurve selection tournament 기보배 양궁

back to business

23 March, 2015

Ki Bo Bae

The hardest archery tournament in the world. The Korea Archery Association have finished their yearly recurve selection tournament in Donghae City, a brutal week involving six 70m rounds and three days of head to head shooting – and apparently in miserably cold and rainy conditions, too. The top eight, in order, in each gender are:

MEN

1. Kim Woojin (2011 world champion), who absolutely dominated the men’s division.

2. Lee Woo Seok (2014 Youth Olympics champion)

3. Shin Jae Hun (promising Korean cadet in 2008, fallen off the international radar for a few years)

4. Im Dong Hyun (what hasn’t he won?)

5. Oh Jin Hyuk (2012 Olympic champ, amongst much else)

6. Lee Seungyun (2013 world champion) – had the top 70m score with 695.

7. Ku Bonchan (brought home silverware last year)

8. Lee Seung Shin (seems to be new on the block)

WOMEN

1. Ki Bo Bae (2012 Olympic champion)

2. Jeon Sungeun (Team LH pro, Bangkok 2014 indoor champion, 2013 WA Youth champion, 2013 Vegas shoot champ too)

3. Chang Hye Jin (Team LH pro, 2014 Antalya individual champion, 2014 Asian Games team gold)

4. Choi Mi Seon (20 years old, and on the Guangzhou University team – that’s all I’ve got)

5. Heung Soo Nam (Cheongju City Hall team)

6. Lee Tuk Young (2006 and 2014 Asian Games team gold medallist)

7. Kang Chae Young (was a cadet in 2011)

8. Park Mi Kyung (last seen on the international stage in 2003!)

Archers who didn’t make the cut include veterans Yun Ok Hee and Joo Hyun Jung (who has apparently retired), and perhaps most surprisingly, Jung Dasomi, last year’s Asian Games individual champion. There are further warmup tournaments next month which narrow down the eight to a front-line four that will likely contest the big events.

The biggest story of all is the triumphant return of Ki Bo Bae, after failing to make the 2014 squad due to a shoulder injury. She had maintained considerable form, managing to shoot a 1391 FITA last year for her pro team – even though a TV news piece at the end of last year hinted she might be retiring from international archery. Also, Im Dong Hyun, who was slightly in the wilderness in 2014, has achieved a truly staggering 13th consecutive selection for the national team.

Lee Woo Seok. Photo: Xinhua

It’s an interesting mix of familiar faces, veterans and youngsters; the real ones to watch might be the young wunderkinds Choi Mi Seon, who was leading the ranking round for two days, and Youth Olympic champion Lee Woo Seok (who, rumour has it, scored 710 for a 70m round earlier this year). If they deliver this season, who would actually bet against an Olympic medal next year?

News piece here (in Korean).

EDIT: and here they all are (via the KAA)

Le fabuleux destin d’ Ki Bo Bae (기보배)

27 January, 2015

I thought I’d seen every dumb thing that longtime TIC favourite Ki Bo Bae had done (or been coerced to do) in the name of sporting publicity. I was wrong. As an Olympic star, she’s one of the faces of the Gwanju Universiade this year, and a little while ago, she had to do this:

To be fair, I can barely keep up with her. The life of an Olympic gold medallist in South Korea is obviously a busy one – although it should be pointed out that she’s a better dancer than she is a singer. However, she’s always game for something silly in front of the cameras – controlling things with her mind, for example, or pitching baseballs with a bow. She’s no stranger to the classic gameshow sharpshooting display either. And, not unlike Jessica Ennis finally cashing in on her years of Olympic sacrifice by stepping out for Santander, Ms. Ki has also been spotted flogging hi-def Samsung monitors – but we shouldn’t forget her charity work, helping the Korean archery team deliver winter fuel to the poor (as they do every year) or indeed, straight up saving the planet.

Ms. Ki was pressed into service to commentate on the Asian Games last year, when she broke the news to an apparently surprised Korean media that her and Oh Jin-Hyek were no longer together – news that was broken on The Infinite Curve only *ahem* more than a year beforehand. (Oh Jin-Hyek got married to someone else in 2014).

But back to archery. She managed to maintain form last year despite being sidelined from Korean national duties (apparently due to a shoulder injury), and has even been filmed recently giving away training, um, ‘secrets‘. Hopefully she’ll be in form enough to be back on the recurve front lines again in 2015. Or failing that: more dancing, I guess? 😉

there’s someone on the field

29 September, 2014

Thx to @RoaringMedia and KBS.

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archery archery blog asiangames Hyundai IncheonAG Jung Dasomi KAA Kia

KAA rebuilds Incheon AG archery field after “not good enough” complaints

23 September, 2014

via AFP / Zee News.

Incheon: South Korea`s wealthy archery association has taken matters into its own hands by hastily upgrading an Asian Games venue and providing its own meals following a number of complaints.

The association said it was spending tens of thousands of dollars putting up a giant TV screen and covering the archery venue`s media area, which was open to the elements.

The body is also providing meals to officials and volunteers, claiming lunchboxes given by organisers — who have already suffered a salmonella scare — were out of date.

“The new awning has been put up over the media zone and construction is still underway to put up a giant screen on the left side of the arena,” a spokeswoman told AFP Tuesday.

“We are spending several tens of millions of won for the project. There were complaints from reporters that it was impossible to see computer monitors and even see the giant screen on the right side, due to sunlight.”

She said the archery body took action after its chairman, Kia boss Chung Eui-Sun, heard complaints about the new Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field.

“We decided to fund the project ourselves since we understood organisers had no additional budget allocated for such new project,” she said.

“We thought the project was necessary given South Korea`s status as an archery powerhouse… we just wanted to provide better experience for archery lovers and did not want to cause any trouble with organisers.”

Games organisers have explained the lunchboxes were not out of date but mislabelled, and that they are now giving cash instead of meals to workers on the site.

They added that they spent about $180,000 building the venue at the request of the archery association, which did not ask them to make any additions.

Organisers had to dump dozens of lunchboxes prepared for athletes after they detected food poison salmonella.

Archery is likely to be a big Asian Games medal-winner for South Korea, who won three out of four Olympic golds at London 2012.

This is crazy. I literally can’t imagine this happening anywhere else. I have no idea who specced out the field or how it ended up like that, but it certainly appears to be an enormous loss-of-face by the organisers – and an indication of how much power is wielded by the KAA with Kia & Hyundai’s backing behind it.

Most of the archery ranking round was completed today, with some familiar names at the top of the pile. Check out all the running results here.

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ki bo bae (again)

11 July, 2014

Ki Bo Bae news! Her Gwangju City Hall pro team won the first “Olympic commemorative’ 31st Hoejanggi College archery competition” a couple of weeks ago, with the team racking up 4126 points in qualifying. Ki Bo Bae shot a 1391 FITA in qualifying, beating the tournament record. No one in Europe or America has ever shot that score, if I have checked correctly.

1391 and not in the national team anymore. Only in Korea. Still, good to see that comeback is still on…

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archery blog Confucianism

korean archery secrets pt.42

18 May, 2014

The two pics above were taken by Gabriel Buitrago at the Medellin World Cup a couple of days ago. (You can see the rest of his Flickr stream here.) They show the Korean women’s recurve team lining up like… well, schoolgirls, to listen to their coach, Ryu-Soo Jung. The lower pic catches at least the younger members of the Korean men’s team in mid-bow to their coach. Bowing in South-East Asian culture is a deeply ingrained part of society, and it’s not surprising to see in in sporting contexts, either. I visited Japan a few years ago and went to see a football match (FC Tokyo v Albirex Niigata) where the entire home team squad bowed to each section of each stand after the match, the whole process taking nearly ten minutes before the guys could go off and have a shower. I was personally bowed to for nothing more than buying a few postcards in a shop, which made me feel a bit awkward, frankly.

I ‘met’ Ryu-Soo Jung (above right) in Wroclaw last year, when I got slightly too close to her charges trying to get photographs of the Korean squad for you, dear readers. She gave me a look that could curdle milk. I got out of the way.

The culture of deference towards teachers – indeed, anyone older than yourself – in Korea is based upon Confucian principles, and the education system, while staggeringly successful on a global comparative scale, is frequently criticised by non-Asian Westerners for its pressure cooker atmosphere and lack of creativity, amongst much else. But in recurve archery, the standardised system of training and complete subservience to coaches has resulted in a deep pool of elite level archers, and a series of results which speak entirely for themselves. No one comes to archery later in life or even in their late teens – the talent is nurtured from age 6 and up. However, the junior archers fit the system, and not the other way around – left-handers, for example, are encouraged to take up other sports and will never make it through the high-school / university / professional system that could take them to an international event or the Olympics.

It is easy to say “this is how it’s done”, but realistically, there is no chance of this happening in any other country. These photographs are a visible representation of a long, deep, pragmatic and complex process that only happens in one place. You can import the coaches, the biomechanical approach to shooting, and the brutal levels of training, but you can’t import the social dynamics, sporting systems and money that Korea has in place to produce recurve archery champions over and over again.

Thanks to Chris Hill.