Australian archer Kim Sky held off overwhelming South Korea to lead the men's individual after preliminaries at the Olympic archery workout unveiled in Beijing on Monday.

 

Kim Sky nailed down 678 points atop the men's individual table. South Korea's world champions squad Lee Chang Hwan, Kim Yeon Chul and Im Dong Hyun locked in the second to fourth places, setting the pace for the archery powerhouse in team ranking.

 

Lee scored the same points as Kim Sky, but edged down by exiguous defect. Kim Yeon Chul and Im Dong Hyun shot down 674 and 673 points apiece.

 

Relying on overall mightiness, South Korea pulled out 2,025 points in team's bracket, 36 points ahead of the runners-up Japan in preliminaries, and is believed to extend their momentum to grab the men's team title.

 

Kim Sky, world No. 59, fell affection with the venue after starting sound at the Olympic "Green Archery Field".

 

"It is very hot in Beijing. Sticky! But the venue is really good. I love the Green Archery Field," said Kim after preliminaries. " Good! I'm quite satisfied and I want to win."

 

Japan's 1,989 points is enough to sweeten the coach and athletes, while third-placed Russia is disgruntled with their 1,985 points.

 

"They have done a good job, and have broken the team's record by 10 points. I think we can win medals in both individual and team events," said Japanese coach Narutoshi Sugiura.

 

According to Sugiura, Takaharu Furukawa and Ryuichi Moriya had secured their Olympic berths, who ended the preliminaries in seventh and 23rd respectively.

 

"The selection (for Olympic squad) is based on the archers' performance in daily training and in tournaments. Furukawa and Moriya will take part in next year's Games and so will (Ryota) Amano if he keeps doing well in the year to come," added Sugiura.

 

Amano took the eighth place in the tournament. Fukukawa put priorities on adapting next year's peak duel.

 

"I came here to adapt to the conditions in Beijing, and to gather experience of high-level competitions so that I can shoot well next year at the Olympics," said Fukukawa, adding he might even get gold with some luck.

 

Russia's coach Stanislav Zabrodskiy anticipates better outcome from his archers. "I'm not satisfied yet. The result is Ok, but they could have done better," commented Zabrodskiy.

 

"They are very tough, really tough. We keep on training and training very hard."

 

Zabrodskiy complained about the sweltering weather. "It's very hot and sticky. Our archers don't have much experience with the conditions living in Beijing. They find it is hard for them to adapt to the weather here," said he.

 

Russia's best performance is Balzhinima Tsyrempilov, who took up the fifth in 671 points.

 

Urged by Kim Sky's unlooked-for feat, Australia held the fourth place in team sequence, followed by Italy and Malaysia.

 

Host China was extruded to the eleventh place. China's coach Guo Meizhen reckoned that pressure on archers set barrier in the tournament.

 

"The overall performance is Ok, but our men's team did not perform well. All the athletes are under huge pressure," said Guo.

 

Guo admitted China's deficiency against top teams. "There is a gap between the Chinese team and the world-class teams," added Guo.

 

"There is really great pressure on the Chinese team. The athletes will practise harder hereafter."

 

There are 113 archers from 27 nations and regions taking part in the "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic archery test slated for August 20-26.

 

Most of the top archers attended the tournament in order to experience the exact Beijing Olympic field and other Olympics-composing ingredients.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2007)