Led by South Korean coach Yang Chang-hoon, Chinese women squad expected one gold out of four on offer in the archery competition. But their hope faded away as they finished third in the women's team in the Asian Games here on Thursday.
"This is a big failure. We pinned our hopes on the women's teamand thought they should make the finals," said the Korean coach disappointedly.
Needing only five points, China lost to Chinese Taipei by four points 224-220 in the semifinals when Yu Hui, individual gold medalist in the 2002 Euro Grand Prix Tournament in Croatia, missedthe last arrow after shooting a perfect 9 and 10.
In the bronze medal match, China snatched the chance and never let it slip away by beating Japan 226-222.
"It is extremely rare that an archer undershoot the target in the competition. They were too nervous that looked totally different from training," Yang said. "I need to pay more attentionto their psychological training besides technical exercise."
Zhang Juanjuan and Chen Hongyuan also wasted good opportunitiesin the women's and men' s individual semifinals, and both placed fourth, a step away from the awarding podium, in the last two days,
"We had thought that the only rivals in Asia for us are the all-conquering South Koreans. Now it seems that everyone and every team are our competitors. We are not strong as we expected," Yang said.
South Korea wrapped all the gold medals on offer at the past three Asiads and claimed three out of four titles in the Sydney Olympic Games.
The hosts had expected a clean-sweep in the archery but suffered a two-day drought when Yuan Shu Chi from Chinese Taipei and Hiroshi Yamamoto of Japan stunned the Koreans to crown the women's and men's individual titles.
The three-time defending champions opened their gold account inarchery today, the last day of the competition, by trouncing Chinese Taipei 246-226 for the women's team title.
"South Korea are still strong and the other teams also made incredible progresses in recent years. Everyone can be the winner.I hope the failure today will help us to grow up and to win in theOlympic Games," Yang said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2002)
