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South Korean archers celebrate their win in the men’s team final against Chinese Taipei on Monday at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo. (Yonhap News)

“Now, this is a dream team,” the announcer at the Olympic venue said as South Korea nabbed yet another gold medal in archery on Monday.

This time, it was the men’s team event. If South Korea managed to sweep all five events with the men’s and women’s individual, it would be the second time in history after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The South Korean squad is now closing in on a repeat of the perfect performance it put on in Rio, where it won gold in all four of the archery events there.

In the final Monday of the men’s team competition at the 2020 Olympics held at Yumenoshima Park Archery Field in Tokyo, the South Korean team of Oh Jin-hyek, 39, Kim Woo-jin, 29, and Kim Je-deok, 17, rolled over Taiwan by a score of 6-0 (59:55/60:58/56:55).

The members were unfazed by the powerful winds that descended that day as Typhoon Nepartak, the eighth typhoon of the year, approached Tokyo. The three athletes worked seamlessly together: the veteran Oh, the ace Kim Woo-jin, and the rookie Kim Je-deok.

The biggest scare the team faced was in the semifinals. Facing host nation Japan, South Korea reached a 4-4 tie before squeaking out a trip to the finals in a shoot-off.

Both sides earned 28 points in the shoot-off, where the members of the two teams each get one shot. But Kim Je-deok landed the pivotal blow by firing his arrow closest to the center.

The 10-point arrow that he shot landed 3.3cm from the center, beating the 5.7cm distance for Japan’s Yuki Kawata. The win came down to just short of a single inch.

“Kim Je-deok is today’s hero,” Oh said after the match.

The latest victory brings South Korea’s cumulative Olympic archery medal count to 42, including 26 gold, nine silver, and seven bronze. It cements South Korea’s status in a league of its own when it comes to archery.

The foreign press stated it as one of the three locks of the Summer Olympics: the US in swimming, Kenya in long-distance running and South Korea in archery.

Perhaps South Korea’s biggest strength in archery terms is the depth of its field. Even past Olympics medalists are not guaranteed a place on the next event’s roster. Some have quipped that getting picked for the national team is a tougher task than actually claiming an Olympic gold.

The fairness of the system for picking the team has been cited as another strength. The Korea Archery Association said that its “rule is to pick the athlete with the top skills for that year.” In other words, no other factors beyond skills are taken into account.

With the gold in the mixed team final on Saturday, Kim Je-deok became South Korea’s youngest-ever archery medalist. Meanwhile, Oh became its oldest-ever medalist with the men’s team win on Monday.

Having swept the team events, South Korea is now looking to take home the rest of the gold medals in the women’s individual event on Friday and the men’s individual event on Saturday.

The men’s individual event looks to be a ripsnorter of a competition, with all three of the team members being plausible contenders for the gold. Having claimed two golds already, Kim Je-deok is seeking to complete a hat trick with an individual win.

By Lee Jun-hee, staff reporter

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