Two World Records Broken, As London Olympics Begin

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 tests of his vision, Im Dong-Hyun scored 20/100 and 20/200 in his right and left eyes respectively. The 20/200 means when you stand 20ft from an object, you see what someone with 20/20 vision sees at 200ft. His right eye is better, but at 20ft, he sees what someone with perfect sight sees at 100ft. He chooses not to improve his sight with glasses or contact lenses as he has become accustomed to seeing the target this way.

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.