South Korean sets record; Oak Harbor man 12th

Oak Harbor's Jacob Wukie prepares to release a shot. The Fremont Ross graduate is 12th after the ranking round.

Associated Press

Oak Harbor's Jacob Wukie prepares to release a shot. The Fremont Ross graduate is 12th after the ranking round.

LONDON -- South Korean archer Im Dong-hyun sees only blurred colors and lines when he peers toward the target about 76 yards away, arrow at the ready. It doesn't stop the legally blind Olympian from hitting the grapefruit-sized yellow center -- again and again and again.

Im set the first world record of the London Olympics on Friday, breaking his own mark in the 72-arrow event and helping South Korea set a team record in the opening round. He broke the record he set in Turkey in May by three points with a score of 699, hours before the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games.

"This is just the first round, so I will not get too excited by it," said Im, who has 10 percent vision in his left eye and 20 percent in his right.

He combined with Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek, breaking the record for 216 arrows with a score of 2,087. That was 18 better than the mark South Korea set in May.

Oak Harbor's Jacob Wukie scored 673 points and finished 12th overall to help the U.S. archery team to a fourth-place finish in Friday's ranking round.

The American squad, which includes three-time reigning World Cup champion Brady Ellison and 2012 world championships silver medalist Jake Kaminski, advanced to today's quarterfinal, where they await the winner of India and Japan. Quarterfinal action is scheduled for 3 p.m. and is followed by semifinals and the medal round.

Wukie, a 2004 graduate of Fremont Ross and the 2009 collegiate national champion at James Madison University, totaled 336 points in the first half and 337 in the second. He will face India's Jayanta Talukdar on Tuesday in the first round of individual competition. Talukdar won the World Cup in 2009.

South Korea's Im Dong-hyun celebrates his world record during Friday's individual ranking round. He is legally blind.

But the big news of the day was the performance by the 26-year-old Im, who does not wear glasses in competition and relies on distinguishing between the bright colors of the target. He won gold in the team event at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

South Korean coach Jang Young Sool also didn't seem too impressed by his team's accomplishment. He said his archers must get ready their next test.

"We will have a day of rest now and prepare for tomorrow," he said of the gold-medal match today.

France finished second in the team event, followed by China and the United States, which was ranked No. 1 coming into the event. The U.S. men beat South Korea last October in London.

Ellison, the world's No. 1 individual archer, said the conditions were ideal Friday and he wasn't surprised the individual world record fell.

"I don't think you get those types of scores anywhere if the weather wasn't just perfect today," the American said. "Korea shoots good, and if you look at the scores, they're always top in the ranking round."

Also Friday, the American women's team scored a surprising second-place finish. Miranda Leek, Jennifer Nichols, and Khatuna Lorig scored 1,979 points with 216 arrows. They were 14 points behind South Korea, which scored 1,993 points.

The U.S. team is ranked No. 6 in the world and qualified for London just last month in Utah.

Lorig, competing in her fifth Olympics, finished fourth in the individual event with 669 points on 72 arrows. She trailed archers from South Korea and Taiwan, all tied at 671 points.