South Korean archers retained their women's team title at the Athens Olympics after edging by China in a tightly contested final on Friday.

This victory means that South Korea, a traditional powerhouse in archery, has swept all the women's titles since the 1984 Olympic Games.

Silver medal, however, is enough to please the Chinese team whose target before the Games is to make the podium.

"Though missing the gold medal, we have done our job," said Zhang Juanjuan, one member of the Chinese team.

With three arrows to go, China narrowed the deficit from ten points to one point, turning on pressure on the title-defending South Koreans.

Chinese archers scored triple nine points for the last three shots, leaving small room for South Korea to make error.

South Korean, however, scored only 9 and 8 points in the first two arrows, forcing them to score 10 points to win.

Park Sung Hyun, the newly-crowned titlist here on Wednesday, rose to the occasion again by scoring 10 points for the last arrow to lift South Korea to a 241-240 victory over China.

"We know Park is a great archer," said Zhang Juanjuan, when asked if she had expected the last 10-point shot.

"We missed the gold because we scored fewer 10 points than them," said Zhang.

Earlier Chinese Taipei beat France 228-242 to take the bronze medal.

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2004)