South Korean archers — as expected — took armful of gold medals at Asian Games. (image: Incheon Asian Games Archery/flickr)
SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Korea Bizwire) –Hyundai Motor Group paid a total of 880 million won (US$828,000) to its archery team members who won medals in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
The automotive group, jointly with the Korea Archery Association, held an award giving ceremony on October 17, with 30 participants, including nine archers who won five gold, three silver, and one copper medals in the athletic event that ended on October 4, Korea Archery Association president Chung Eui-sun and other association executives. Chung is also a vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.
The latest award ceremony was intended to encourage the archery team that produced good results in both individual and team competitions. In the 2014 Asian Games, a record number of archers participated, 222 players from 27 countries, as it added “compound archery,” the archery competition using the compound bow instead of the usual recurve bow, as a new sub-game item.
In the award event, Chang Hye-jin (recurve) and Seok Ji-hyun (compound) who collected a gold medal in the female team competition and a silver medal in individual game were given 60 million won each. Others including head coach Jang Young-sul, coaches for male and female teams, and players also received award money for their contribution for the Asian Games as the single athletic team that won the most number of medals.
The main reason for the archery team’s good performance has to do with Hyundai’s generous, long-term support. Chung Mong-koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, took the president job with the association for 12 years between 1985 and 1997 after which he has continued to be involved in the capacity of honorary chairman. The group has so far invested 38 billion won for the archers. His son, Chung Eui-sun, has been the association’s president since 2005.
By Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
