2022 Asian Games (golf) - played Sept 28 - Oct 1, 2023

South Korea won the women's doubles in table tennis. Pictured are Yubin Shin and Jee Hee Jeon. Amazing they beat the Chinese; I thought they were unbeatable in this sport!

You might not be surprised to discover that the women's archery individual finals will come down to 20-year-old Sihyeon Lim (who shot the top score in qualifying) and three-time Olympic gold medalist An San. Talk about a dream match! (Sihyeon Lim is apparently the accepted Western version of her name, not Si Hyun Im as I previously used).

It wasn't easy for Lim to get here. She faced stiff competition in the semis against a Chinese archer named Li Ze Man. They wound up tied and had a shoot off (one arrow each until one won) to decide who advanced. Lim went first and nailed a ten; the nervous Chinese archer then "only" made 9 and Lim advanced.





An San's path was easier; the first two sets were close, but after that she cruised to a win 7-3, also over a Chinese archer named Hai Li Gan, who had finished second in qualifying (An had finished third).



Good luck to both in the finals!  They will take place (as well as the bronze medal match) on the 7th.

PS, I was confused to learn that there are actually TWO different types of archery at these games; there is only one at the Olympics.

Here they have recurve, which is the Olympic version, and compound. The differences are: in recurve, the arrow is entirely shot by the strength of the archer, whereas in compound, there is a machine that helps with drawing the string. Also, the distance for recurve is 70m, but only 50m for compound. The target is slightly smaller in compound owing to the shorter distance. The Koreans are world class in compound and have an archer in the finals there (against an Indian I believe), but they dominate in recurve.

The Korean women won the table tennis gold; the gold medal match had them downing the North Koreans. Afterwards came the medal ceremony, and as you can tell from this photo, the Northerners were less than happy about doing the ceremonial 'both teams on the top tier of the podium' bit:



The North Korean team has gotten tongues wagging this week, as athletes have repeatedly refused to do post-tournament press conferences and photo shoots as is required in the rules. That was the case here; after the photo, the team immediately left and did not do the requisite press duties.

19-year-old Yu Bin Shin might not have impressed the North Koreans, but she has become somewhat of a breakout star otherwise. Besides the gold with Ji Hee Jeon in the women's doubles, she also won the bronze medal in the mixed team event with Jong Hoon Lim, and when they got their medals, the presenter put them on wrong and they had to adjust the straps of the other on TV. They also did the 'hearts' salute and otherwise beamed with joy. This went viral in China, with social media gushing about how they seemed to be like a KDrama couple.

Another woman who made out well at the Asian Games was Yubin Shin. The table tennis player won one gold and three bronzes. Here she is showing off her hardware as she returned to Korea:

After winning several more golds in several more events and freaking out the dominant Aussies with her record setting performances, Siobhan Haughey finally gets to relax at a fashion show:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzLp_6my2Ff