The Korean archery and baseball teams have proven to be the strongest in their sport at the 17th Asian Games currently underway in Incheon.

The men's and women's archery teams together obtained five gold medals out of the eight available. The two teams together also won three silver medals and one bronze medal.

Oh Jin-hyek, one of the Korean archers, was crowned the men's individual recurve champ on September 28. In the men's recurve individual final, Oh beat his Chinese counterpart 6-4 to win the gold medal.

Earlier, in the recurve men's team competition, Ku Bon-chan, Lee Seung-yun and Oh defeated the Japanese team 5-3 to win the bronze medal. Oh obtained one gold and one bronze medal that day.





In women's archery, Jung Dasomi won two gold medals. In the women's recurve team match, which took place in the morning, Lee Tuk-young, Chang Hye-jin and Jung defeated China 6-0 in set points to win the gold medal.

Later that day in the women's individual recurve competition, Jung defeated her teammate Chang to win her second gold medal of the day. As a result, the Korean archery teams were able to add three gold medals to their roster.

Earlier on September 27, in the women's compound team match, Choi Bo-min, Kim Yun-hee and Seok Ji-hyun outshot their counterparts on the Chinese Taipei team 229-226. Choi won another gold medal in the women's individual compound competition.

In the men's compound match, Korea settled for silver after the Korean team lost 227-225 to India in the team final.

Moving on to baseball, the Korean team defended its gold medal with a come-from-behind victory over Chinese Taipei in the final at the Munhak Stadium on September 28. The Korean team was down 3-2 heading into the eighth inning, but scored four runs in the top of the eighth, defeating the Taiwanese team 6-3. Korea has now won its second straight gold medal at an Asian Games.

Relief pitcher An Ji-man was called upon to clean up the mess in the bottom of the seventh inning, with no out and an opponent on first and third. It was a desperate situation, as any additional score by Chinese Taipei could have led to the Korean team's outright loss.

However, An was not intimidated by the situation. He retired the next three batters to escape the inning unscathed, and then sat down three more hitters in a row in the bottom of the eighth, becoming the winning pitcher.



In addition to his defense, the Korean team put up four runs in the top of the eighth, winning the gold medal after an extremely tight match.

"The Korean team was an excellent and strong team. We learned a lot from the match," said Lu Ming Tsu, the Chinese Taipei team manager. "Please, give some words of encouragement to the young Taiwanese players who fought so hard."

By Wi Tack-whan, Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writers
whan23@korea.kr