(Olympic) Competition begins for South Korea with preliminary rounds in archery and handball

The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games takes place on Friday evening, but preparatory activities are already taking place in the days leading up to it.

For South Korea, the action begins with the individual scoring rounds in the women’s and men’s archery, followed by Group A play in the women’s handball tournament on Thursday.

The ranking rounds in archery determine the placement for the tournament. The higher the placement, the better the chances an archer has of avoiding tough competition early in the knockout competition.

Each archer shoots 72 arrows at 12 ends with six arrows each, reaching the maximum score of 720.

The women’s ranking round begins on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the Invalides in Paris and at 4:30 p.m. on the same day in South Korea. Lim Si-hyeon, Jeon Hun-young and Nam Su-hyeon will compete in South Korea.

The men’s rankings begin on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. local time, or 9:15 p.m. in Seoul. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok will represent South Korea.

The best South Korean archers will compete as partners in the mixed team competition. Kim Je-deok won the first gold medal in the mixed team competition together with An San in Tokyo in 2021, but An did not make it past the national Olympic trials this time.

In women’s handball, South Korea opens the preliminary round against Germany at 4 p.m. in the South Paris Arena 6 in Paris and 11 p.m. in Seoul.

Women’s handball is the only team sport in which South Korea participates at these Olympic Games.

There are two groups of six players each and the top four nations after the round-robin tournament qualify for the quarter-finals.

After Germany, South Korea will face Slovenia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

South Korea has not won a medal in women’s handball since winning bronze in 2008. It finished fourth in 2012, tenth in 2016 and eighth in 2021.

Ryu Eun-hee, one of South Korea’s top attackers who is competing in the Olympics for the fourth consecutive year, stressed the importance of the first match. South Korea considers Germany and Slovenia as the two relatively easier opponents in the group, and a win in the opening match will push South Korea in the right direction.

“We’re aiming to reach the quarterfinals and if we avoid injuries, we should be able to play good games,” Ryu said. “We really want to win for our fans.”

Ironically, however, it is Ryu who is currently battling an injury. The 34-year-old tore ligaments in the fingers of her left hand during a match for her club in Hungary last month and has been training and playing with her ring and pinky fingers bandaged.

“I’m still in pain. They said it wasn’t broken, but a ligament on the inside was torn,” Ryu said. “But taping the fingers actually feels nice.”

Before arriving in France, South Korea had trained in Spain and the Netherlands. South Korea fought a tough battle with the Dutch team before losing 24-26 last Thursday.

“We played well in this game, and the two games before that in Spain went pretty well,” Ryu noted. “I think we are getting better and better and our confidence is high.” (Yonhap)