South Korea win 7th straight Olympic archery gold

London, July 29 (IANS/RIA Novosti) South Korea won its seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women's team archery competition Sunday, beating China in a rainy final.

Ki Bo-Bae shot the decisive nine-pointer to take the Koreans to 210 points, with the Chinese registering 209.

Korea and China, the finalists in Beijing four years ago, went into the halfway stage all square, but the Chinese flagged in the final end as Xu Jing hit consecutive eights to hand the initiative to Korea.

By that stage the Koreans already had a two-point lead with an arrow was adjudged to have fallen in the 10-point zone rather than nine.

It was a seventh straight gold for the Koreans.

Japan took third place earlier Sunday in a bronze medal playoff against Russia for its first-ever podium in the event.

Ksenia Perova shot an eight when Russia needed a ten to remain in the bronze medal match, handing third place to the Japanese who won 209-207.

The other members of the Russian team were Inna Stepanova and Kristina Timofeeva.

Japan's lineup was Kaori Kawanaka, Ren Hayakawa and Miki Kanie.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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