Lee Seungyun completes Korean sweep at Tokyo 2020 Olympic test event
Lee Seungyun beat teammate Kim Woojin in straight sets in the recurve men’s final to take Korea’s third gold medal of the Ready Steady Tokyo test event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“I thought about it as the real Olympics so that I could finish it with a more relaxed mind at the next Games,” Lee said. “I’ve been working very hard but I think that I was lucky at this tournament because I did not always have good scores.”
Kim Woojin was the top seed at this event. He had a long road to the final, his previous three elimination matches going the full five sets.
In the third round, he was 5-1 down to Taylor Worth.
But two-time world champion Woojin unleashed two volleys containing nothing but perfect 10s and then shot a 10 in the tiebreak to stay alive in the tournament.
Seungyun is the man that won the world title in between Woojin’s two crowns, in 2011.
His best showing was the semifinal against Brady Ellison, in which he shot three 30s in sets two, three and four to take command. Ellison only missed out on the tie by a millimetre with his last arrow – which escaped just out of the top of the 10-ring.
The final was short. Seungyun shot sets of 29, 29 and 28 points to Woojin’s 27, 28 and 27.
“The wind was not constant and was changing a lot, which makes it more interesting,” said the 24-year-old.
Seungyun was firmly focused on the present when asked if he would be standing in the same spot come the Games.
“Honestly, I do not own it because there are so many good players in Korea. I won’t do well [at the Olympics] if I don’t make the team,” he said. “It’s good we’ve gone from four to five gold medals. We’re expecting to win all five.”
Korea won all four of the gold medals available at the last Olympic Games in Rio. Lee, who finished seventh individually, was part of the winning team. The mixed team competition has been added to the programme in Tokyo for the first time, bringing the number of medals available to five.
After An San’s women’s victory and gold in the pairs, Seungyun’s men’s gold makes it a Korean clean sweep of the podiums at this test event.
The recurve men’s bronze medal match was a repeat of the bronze final from Rio. There, Brady Ellison beat Sjef van den Berg in four sets, 6-2.
Here, three years later, it was closer.
Tied at 4-4 with three arrows to shoot, Brady finished with three 10s. Sjef had two 10s and an eight. Brady took bronze and Sjef came fourth.
Sjef has now faced Brady six times in international competition and lost each time. Ellison has finished the last four of those matches with a perfect score of 30 points in the last set.
The Ready Steady Tokyo test event takes place on 11-18 July 2019 in the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic venue in Tokyo, Japan.
