Archery Ansan on the way to Hangzhou “Winning three gold medals? You have to pass the preliminaries first!”
If you place 4th among Korean players in the Asian Games preliminaries, you will not be able to challenge for a medal.
“People around me are winning 3 gold medals and 3 gold medals,
but I’m only watching the preliminaries,” said ‘Shingung’ Ansan (Gwangju Women’s University),
who is challenging the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Ansan
Ansan, who achieved the first triple gold medal in history at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and has been selected as a member of the national team every year
since then and has performed well in international competitions, is the biggest star in Korean archery.
Many fans hope that he will once again achieve the feat of winning three gold medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games,
which are just 20 days away. 토토사이트
However, Ansan, whom we met on the 31st at Mokdong Sports Complex in Seoul,
where the Hyundai Motor Company Chung Mong-koo Korea Archery Competition was held,
waved his hand at the talk of ‘three gold medals’.
Ansan said emphatically, “Before competing in the Tokyo Olympics,
even now, winning three gold medals has never been my goal.
In sports, you don’t know until it’s over.
Right now, I’m only focusing on the preliminaries.
These are not just words that come from a humble attitude.
Taegeuk Archers
For Taegeuk archers, the Asian Games are truly a ‘war’ starting from the preliminaries.
Unlike the Olympics, where three men and women each enter the team and all three compete in the individual and team events,
the Asian Games feature four players each, two in the individual and three in the team event.
In mixed matches, only one male and one male player each pair participates.
In other countries, it is common to allocate events so that all four male and female athletes on the entry list can compete for a medal.
Korean Archery
But Korean archery is different.
Qualifications are given only in the order of highest ‘potential to win a medal.’
The player with the best performance in the preliminary round (ranking round) on the first day will participate in all individual, team, and mixed competitions.
The second-place athlete participates in the individual and team competitions,
the third-place athlete only participates in the team competition.
The Korea Archery Association plans to allocate participation rights for each event in this manner in this competition as well.
In the End
The athlete who shoots the lowest score in the preliminaries has no chance to challenge for a medal.
All I have to do is watch my three other colleagues compete for medals in Hangzhou.
Since the skills of the national team players differ by ‘a sheet of paper,’
there is a high possibility that Ansan will end up in an ‘unlucky 4th place’.
Ansan repeatedly emphasized, “I need to get good grades in the preliminaries to advance to the finals,
so I’m going to focus on the preliminaries first.
Regardless of the expectations around me,
I will only focus on the preliminaries.”
Although there is a lot of pressure for the preliminaries,
I am excited to compete in my first Asian Games.
Ansan posted his candidacy by saying, “I am excited, but I am also very determined.
Asian Games
This is because the Asian Games are more intense than the Olympics.
As the Asian Games is a competition that receives a lot of public attention like the Olympics,
I want to show a good performance.
” He continued, “I think I have matured a lot by participating in many international competitions over the past two years since Tokyo.
I have become able to understand the game management and characteristics of my opponents.
All of this is competitiveness.”
“I will do my best to deal with it in a detached manner as I receive it,” he pledged.
This year’s Chung Mong-Goo Cup ended up being a preview of the ‘internal competition’ that will unfold fiercely in Ansan at the Asian Games.
Ansan lost 4-6 to Hwang Jae-min (Changwon City Hall) in the round of 64 held on the 1st and was eliminated early