S Korean coach hired to polish Taiwan archers

DPA , TAIPEI

Taiwan has hired South Korea’s top coach to train its archery team to win gold at the 2010 Asian Games and the 2012 Olympics, an official said on Tuesday.

“Coach Chun In-soo will train our archers to win gold at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and the 2012 Olympics in London,” Ho Tang-hsiung, secretary-general of the Chinese Taipei Archery Association, told a news conference while introducing the new coach to the press.

Chun, who led South Korea to double gold in the men’s and women’s archery team events at last year’s Beijing Olympics, said he would try to improve Taiwanese archers’ skills and boost their confidence.

When asked if he would use militant training methods — like putting archers into dark rooms filled with rats and snakes — he said these were the methods used to train South Korean archers to compete against North Korean rivals.

“There is some exaggeration and these methods do not suit foreign players, so I will find other ways to train Taiwan’s players,” he said.

Chun, 43, is the third foreign coach Taiwan has hired to train its archers.

Taiwan decided to hire Chun because although its archery teams won a silver and a bronze at the 2004 Athens Olympics, they failed to win any medal at the Beijing Olympics.

“The Chinese Taipei team used to be the rival of the South Korean archery team. But in recent years Chinese Taipei seemed to lose confidence during international competitions,” he said.

“So I will also try to improve their stability [at major events],” Chun added.
This story has been viewed 804 times.

Source: TAIPEI TIMES