Paris, France, July 25, 2024: Korea’s Hangzhou Asian Games archery champion Lim Si-hyeon set a world record in the women's ranking round of the Paris Olympics on Thursday, July 25.
Lim scored 694 out of a possible 720 points at Les Invalides in Paris, finishing first in the ranking round. Another South Korean archer, Kang Chae-young, owned the previous record of 692 points, set in June 2019.
Lim, a triple Asian Games gold medalist in Hangzhou last year, will be the top seed in the individual competition, which begins on Tuesday with the round of 64. Lim will also represent Korea in the mixed team event on August 2.
Lim admitted that she was nervous about competing in her first Olympics but she did the best she could to enjoy the experience.
"I told myself not to try to do too much, and I am thankful that I was able to maintain good form from start to finish," she told Yonhap News. "I am happy to have done well in this phase but this is only the beginning."
In the ranking round, Lim led everyone with 48 10s and earned 21 Xs for hitting the innermost gold ring on the target.
Archers each fired 72 arrows, six arrows each over 12 ends, and Lim scored nothing but 10s and 9s until hitting an 8 with the last arrow of her 10th end.
Also in Thursday's ranking round, her teammate Nam Su-hyeon finished second overall behind Lim with 688 points. The third member of the Korean team, Jeon Hun-young, ranked 13th with 664 points.
With the three archers' scores combined, Korea finished first as the team with an Olympic record score of 2,046 points, 50 points ahead of the runner-up China. Korea will be the top seed in the women's team event on Sunday.
Korea is undefeated in the women's team event and will try to win its 10th consecutive gold medal.