London 2012: First Two World Records Broken At Games

London 2012 has not had long to wait for its first world records, with the South Korean archery team setting two new landmarks at Lord’s.

Im Dong-hyun, who is visually impaired, set an individual record in Friday’s ranking round. He also joined forces with Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek to record a new best in the team event.

South Korea’s archery team is regarded as the best in the world.

Britain’s Larry Godfrey shot a personal best to finish fourth of 64.

Alan Wills registered his third-highest score of the year to finish 42nd, and Simon Terry was 50th.

In the women’s competition, Naomi Folkard led the way for Britain in 42nd, six-time Olympian Alison Williamson was 47th and Amy Oliver 57th.

The men ranked ninth out of the 12 teams, with the women’s scores only good enough for 11th place.

Dong-hyun, who won team golds at the past two Games, broke his own 72-arrow mark of 696 by three points.

He can barely read the big letters at the top of an optician’s chart, aiming at a “yellow blob” in the target 70 metres away.

Alongside Bubmin and Jin-hyek, Dong-hyun helped set a 216-arrow total of 2,087, eclipsing the previous world record by 18 points.

He does not compete in the Paralympics as there are no events at the Games for blind or visually impaired archers.

Lord’s played host to the men’s individual ranking round on Friday morning and will hold the men’s team gold medal match on Saturday.

BBC