South Korea's stranglehold on Olympic archery showed little sign of easing on Friday as men's number one Kim Woo-jin fired a 72-arrow world record and the nation's women dominated the ranking rounds at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
The tournament's first shoot-off on a glorious day at the Sambodromo began with a bang as world champion Kim racked up 700 points out of a maximum 720, beating the 699 his compatriot Im Dong-hyun compiled in the preliminary round in London four years ago.
The day ended with all three of South Korea's women at the top of the standings, led by 20-year-old Choi Mi-sun, who flirted with team mate Ki Bo-bae's world record before the wind picked up in the afternoon.
South Korea took three of the four golds in London, with only the bronze medal-winning men's team missing out, but the Rio contingent appear determined to make a clean sweep this time round.
Such is the Koreans' unwavering focus that 24-year-old Kim barely acknowledged his record, preferring to talk only of the men's team event on Saturday.
"It's just the ranking round ... I want to focus on tomorrow, so today's not really big happy," he said through a translator before being mobbed by South Korean reporters.
Kim sealed the record with riveting theatre, needing to find the innermost gold circle for a maximum 10 points with his final arrow and duly sending it flush into the middle.
His face broke into a smile as he turned back to his camp, having captured the top seeding and drawn a first-round match-up with 64th and last-ranked archer Gavin Ben Sutherland, a Zimbabwean who finished 134 points adrift of the Korean.
Kim will link up with Lee Seung-yun and Ku Bon-chan on Saturday to try to restore the nation's reign over the men's team event.
The United States ended their run of three successive Olympic titles from 2000-08 in a nail-biting semi-final in London.
A powerful American team drew confidence from an outstanding 690 from former world champion Brady Ellison, who took second seeding behind Kim.
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