S Korea's blind archer sets world record, Indians flop

South Korea set the first world records of the London Olympics, both in the men's archery competition, with legally blind Im Dong-hyun breaking the 72-arrow mark with 699 points on Friday.

Im, 26, also took part in the team shoot which also broke the world record, scoring 2,087 points in the 216 arrows alongside Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek.

It was a disappointing start to the proceedings for India as the team finished at the bottom of the heap at 12th in the ranking round, at the Lord's Cricket Ground.

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The trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee combined for a score of 1969 as defending champions Korea shattered the team world record with a tally of 2087 to lead the rankings.

Individually, Tarundeep Rai was the best-placed Indian at 31, with 664 points from 72 shots. Banerjee was at 46, with 655 points, followed by Talukdar at 53, with 650 points.

Im set an individual world record with a score of 699/720.

France finished a distant second in the raking round with a score of 2021.

After the ranking round, the 12 teams will shoot in a head-to-head elimination format.

Each team will shoot four sets of six arrows (two arrows per archer).

The team with the highest total will win the match, with winning teams progressing through the draw until only the finalists remain.

If two teams are tied, a three-arrow shoot-off is held. If this doesn't separate them, the team closest to the centre of the target emerges the winner.

The two winning teams from the respective semi-final matches compete in the gold-medal match and the remaining teams compete in the bronze-medal match.

Im won gold medals in the team event at the Beijing and Athens Olympics. He has only 10 per cent vision in his left eye, and 20 per cent in his right, meaning he is considered legally blind.

He has said that when he looks at the targets, he sees colors with blurred lines between them. He does not wear glasses in competition, saying he he relies on being able to distinguish between the bright colors of the target.

Results:

Men's Individual 70m Ranking Round

1. Im Dong Hyun, South Korea, 699.

2. Kim Bubmin, South Korea, 698.

3. Oh Jin Hyek, South Korea, 690.

4. Larry Godfrey, Britain, 680.

5. Takaharu Furukawa, Japan, 679.

6. Gael Prevost, France, 679.

7. Dai Xiaoxiang, China, 678.

8. Crispin Duenas, Canada, 678.

9. Romain Girouille, France, 677.

10. Brady Ellison, United States, 676.

11. Mauro Nespoli, Italy, 674.

12. Jacob Wukie, United States, 673.

13. Xing Yu, China, 673.

14. Rafal Dobrowolski, Poland, 672.

15. Yu Ishizu, Japan, 671.

16. Rick van der Ven, Netherlands, 671.

17. Denis Gankin, Kazakhstan, 670.

18. Jake Kaminski, United States, 670.

19. Jantsan Gantugs, Mongolia, 669.

20. Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Malaysia, 669.

21. Baard Nesteng, Norway, 669.

22. Liu Zhaowu, China, 668.

23. Taylor Worth, Australia, 668.

24. Markiyan Ivashko, Ukraine, 667.

25. Elias Malave, Venezuela, 666.

26. Luis Eduardo Velez, Mexico, 666.

27. Thomas Faucheron, France, 665.

28. Dmytro Hrachov, Ukraine, 665.

29. Juan Rene Serrano, Mexico, 665.

30. Luis Alvarez, Mexico, 665.

31. Tarundeep Rai, India, 664.

32. Daniel Felipe Pineda, Colombia, 664.

33. Cheng-Pang Wang, Taiwan, 663.

34. Juan Carlos Stevens, Cuba, 663.

35. Yavor Vasilev Hristov, Bulgaria, 663.

36. Michele Frangilli, Italy, 662.

36. Marco Galiazzo, Italy, 662.

38. Witthaya Thamwong, Thailand, 662.

39. Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei, Iran, 662.

40. Cheng-Wei Kuo, Taiwan, 660.

41. Elias Cuesta, Spain, 660.

42. Alan Wills, Britain, 660.

43. Viktor Ruban, Ukraine, 660.

44. Hideki Kikuchi, Japan, 659.

45. Chu Sian Cheng, Malaysia, 658.

46. Rahul Banerjee, India, 655.

47. Dan Olaru, Moldova, 654.

48. Haziq Kamaruddin, Malaysia, 654.

49. Jeff Henckels, Luxembourg, 654.

50. Simon Terry, Britain, 654.

51. Daniel Rezende Xavier, Brazil, 653.

52. Camilo Mayr, Germany, 653.

53. Jayanta Talukdar, India, 650.

54. Yu-Cheng Chen, Taiwan, 649.

55. Mark Javier, Philippines, 649.

56. Nay Myo Aung, Myanmar, 646.

57. Ahmed El-Nemr, Egypt, 644.

58. Klemen Strajhar, Slovenia, 639.

59. Rene Philippe Kouassi, Ivory Coast, 638.

60. Kar Wai Calvin Lee, Hong Kong, 637.

61. Md Emdadul Haque Milon, Bangladesh, 636.

62. Axel Muller, Switzerland, 633.

63. Robert Elder, Fiji, 615.

64. Emanuele Guidi, San Marino, 589.

Men's Team Ranking Round

1. South Korea (Oh Jin Hyek; Im Dong Hyun; Kim Bubmin), 2087.

2. France (Romain Girouille; Gael Prevost; Thomas Faucheron), 2021.

3. China (Dai Xiaoxiang; Liu Zhaowu; Xing Yu), 2019.

4. United States (Jacob Wukie; Brady Ellison; Jake Kaminski), 2019.

5. Japan (Takaharu Furukawa; Hideki Kikuchi; Yu Ishizu), 2009.

6. Italy (Michele Frangilli; Marco Galiazzo; Mauro Nespoli), 1998.

7. Mexico (Juan Rene Serrano; Luis Eduardo Velez; Luis Alvarez), 1996.

8. Britain (Larry Godfrey; Simon Terry; Alan Wills), 1994.

9. Ukraine (Markiyan Ivashko; Dmytro Hrachov; Viktor Ruban), 1992.

10. Malaysia (Chu Sian Cheng; Khairul Anuar Mohamad; Haziq Kamaruddin), 1981.

11. Taiwan (Yu-Cheng Chen; Cheng-Wei Kuo; Cheng-Pang Wang), 1972.

12. India (Jayanta Talukdar; Tarundeep Rai; Rahul Banerjee), 1969.

Photograph: Paul Gilham / Getty Images