Though South Korea has been an almighty power in archery field, FITA (world archery governing body) president Ugur Erdener said Wednesday no rules change plan to break the dominance from the traditional archery powerhouse.
South Korea has collected all six women's team Olympic titles since it's ushered into the Olympic programme at the Seoul Games 1988. In men's team event, South Korea piled up four out of six available including the latest three.
In the Individual event, the South Korean women never allowed the Olympic gold to be away from their hands since the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
For South Korea's domination on the sport, newly-elected FITA president Erdener said no rules change plan to change the situation.
"We can't start changing rules to prevent a country from winning medals. This would be crazy. The reason is that they have a very professional approach to the sport," said Erdener here.
"This approach is spreading throughout the world and we have for instance seen that some of the more traditional countries in archery have had a hard time qualifying for the Olympics and I'm pretty sure that the level is increasing everywhere," said FITA secretary general Tom Dielen.
"In fact we had 49 national (regional) Olympic committees qualify for the Games. It's a new record and shows the development of the sport. The level has never been as high as it is here.
"There is no such thing as a tourist archer of the Olympics Games. The difference is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. We have seen during the World Cup this year and last year that they (S. Koreans) are not as invincible as they have been.
"They have a very good preparation for the Olympics and they have a great fan club here. I encourage all of the other countries to do the same because that is also important in terms of the mental edge during the match." explained Dielen for keeping rules unchanged.
"Yes, they are very good, but my message to them is look out for the rest because I am pretty sure the other countries are catching up."
South Korea won both men's and women's team titles at the Beijing Olympics and is poised to take the women's individual and probably their first ever men's individual in the next two days.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)