Viktor Ruban of Ukraine nailed a 10 in last arrow, beating Park Kyung-Mo from South Korea 113-112 and lifting the first ever Olympic gold medal in archery for his country?in Beijing?at the Olympic archery field on Friday.
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Viktor Ruban of Ukraine releases the arrow during the men's individual final of archery against Park Kyung-Mo of the Republic of Korea at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Aug. 15, 2008. Ruban defeated Park and claimed the title in this event. [Gesang Dawa/Xinhua] |
Viktor Ruban shot five 10s and seven 9s in the final, outshooting Park, the double Olympic champion in team, by one point.
"It was difficult emotionally, maybe tomorrow I'll feel that I won the gold medal," said Ruban with the first ever Olympic archery gold.
Before the last arrow, the two archers came to a tie, both in 103. Ruban nailed his last arrow to ten first, leaving Park no choice but a ten to prolong the tussle. Park scored only a nine to lose the Games' final.
"In our country, we don't work with a psychologist, we only work on the technical side of things. We work on the psychological side ourselves to be focused at exactly the right moment," added the Ukraine.
For Park, it's probably his last Olympic journey at the age of 33 and the silver just left him some regret.
"I think Beijing will be my last Olympic Games. I didn't do my best and I wound up with the silver," said Park.
"I have already had world championship and Asian Games titles with me, but never an Olympic gold. The silver is good, but somewhat a regret for my career."
In the bronze medal fight, Russia's Bair Badenov knocked out Rene Juan Serrano from Mexico 115-110 to settle a place in the podium.
In the quarterfinals, Cuba's Juan Carlos Stevens had a good chance to rout Park. Stevens was two points ahead of Park before the last arrow, but he shot only an eight to allow a ten from Park for shoot-off.
Park, the double Olympic champion in team as the last shooter, gave a 9-10 in extra arrows against Stevens' 9-8 for the last four.
The reigning world champion IM Dong-hyun was ousted by Victor Wunderle from the United States 113-111 in the 1/8 eliminations. The south Korean's teammate Lee Chang-hwan also suffered an early exit to Cheng Chu Sian of Malaysia in shoot-off over a 105 tie.
The South Korean archers collected both team's titles at the Beijing Olympics with the women's individual gold medal going to Chinese archer Zhang Juanjuan on Thursday.
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Ukraine's Ruban wins men's individual archery gold?[Xinhua] |
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)