With the elimination round ending for the last 16, all three South Koreans booked berth in the match-up for medals at the Olympic archery field on Wednesday.
Hearing a crowd chanting his name after each arrow, No. 10 seed Lee Chang-Hwan of South Korea shot a near perfect score of 117 out of 120 to set a 12-arrow Olympic record in the elimination.
Lee and his teammate IM Dong-Hyun, Park Kyung-Mo, along with three of the top four seeded archers, Juan Rene Serrano from Mexico, Viktor Ruban from Ukraine, advanced as expected to the 1/8 elimination Round.
Other archers who qualified for the top 16 include Alan Wills of Britain and Victor Wunderle from the United States.
In an exciting match that came down to the very last arrow, Wills, the No. 21 seed, took out the reigning Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy, in the 1/16 elimination, 110-109.
Wunderle, the individual silver medalist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, kept the United States' hopes alive for an individual medal when he defeated Ilario Di Buo of Italy in a two-arrow shoot-off following a 108- 108 tie.
Both Di Buo and Wunderle shot a nine on the first arrow, but it was Wunderle who conquered with a 10 to Di Buo's eight on the second arrow.
In the biggest upset of the day, No. 2 seed Mangal Singh Champia of India failed to advance to the top 16. Champia lost to No. 31 seed Bair Badenov of Russia, 109-108, but Badenov did not win his next match.
Before the men's individual elimination began on Wednesday, the Olympic record was 115. Besides Lee's new record of 117, three other archers, Serrano, Park, and Jacek Proc form Poland shot 116s in their elimination matches.
The Olympic record broken Wednesday was set 12 years ago at the Altanta 1996 Olympic Games by OH Kyo-Moon from South Korea. OH is in Beijing as the head coach of the Australian Archery team.
The men's 1/8 elimination matches begin on Friday as three South Koreans gear up for their first ever individual Olympic gold in men's archery.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008 )