Individual, Men

Since Kim Jin-Ho won her country’s first world title in 1979, South Korea had become the foremost nation in world archery. However, in all this time, the men’s individual title at the Olympic Games had stubbornly eluded Korean hands. In 2011 both finalists at the World Championships had been South Korean but such was the nation’s strength that the champion, Kim Woo-Jin, failed to make the team for the London Games. In his absence Korean hopes rested mainly on the shoulders of Im Dong-Hyeon, ranked second in the world, and world championship silver medallist Oh Jin-Hyek. The man at the top of the world rankings was American Brady Ellison who had already shown his liking for London by winning the official test event in October of 2011.

The ranking round was a triumph for South Korean as their archers occupied the first three positions on the leader board. Im Dong-Hyeon excelled and put five points on the world record whilst Kim Bub-Min was just a single point behind in second. Despite this they had failed somewhat in the team event and finished with, what was for them, a disappointing third place.

For the London Games the format of the knockout rounds had changed from the previous Olympics. In Beijing matches were decided over the cumulative score of 12 arrows but in 2012 matches consisted of up to 5 sets of 3 arrows (with 2 points to the winner of each set and 1 for a tie), winner was the first player to reach 6 points. In case of a tie, matches were decided with a single arrow, the one closest to the centre winning the match. In theory this should have made for a more dramatic, albeit unpredictable, tournament than before.

The first of the favourites to fall was Brady Ellison, at the second round stage, quickly followed by the new world record holder Im, who was defeated by Rick van der Ven, the European champion from the Netherlands. Van der Ven was in turn ousted by [Takaharu Furukawa] of Japan in the semi-finals after a shoot-out and, by the same method, Oh Jin-Hyek sealed his place in the final by defeating China’s Dai Xiaoxiang. Oh had been the third best of the Koreans in the qualifying round but showed immaculate consistency in the knockout stages and won the gold medal against Furukawa by placing every one of his shots in the gold sector. After he broke the jinx against Korean individual success in the men’s event he commented “It was a long way to come till this moment. I wanted no regrets. I shot every arrow as if it were my last.”