(Asiad) Archery medalist says is grateful to be back in sport after quitting as teenager

OKAZAKI, Japan, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- Park Jung-yoon first entered the realm of competitive archery while in elementary school, but quit as she got into middle school. Now 29 years old, Park recalls that she wanted to explore other things in life.

Years later, Park decided there was nothing she would rather do than shoot arrows for a living. When she was 25, Park picked up her bow and arrows again -- first starting out in an amateur archery club that met only on weekends before eventually quitting her day job to focus on making the national team.

Park won the national team trials for the compound discipline for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games earlier this year. And on Wednesday, about four years after making her comeback to the sport, the South Korean collected two Asian Games medals -- silver in the mixed team event and bronze in the women's team event.

"I never regret decisions I make," Park said after the end of the mixed team final. "I am grateful to be doing something I love for a living."

Park began her Asian Games campaign by joining teammates Kang Yeon-seo and Park Ye-rin for the women's team bronze in Wednesday's earlier session. They edged out Chinese Taipei 229-228 in the bronze medal match -- after losing to the defending champion India 234-233 in the semifinals.

Then in the mixed team final, Park Jung-yoon and Choi Yong-hee lost to India's Chikitha Taniparthi and Sahil Rajesh Jadhav of India 20-19 in a shoot-off, after the teams finished the regular four ends in a 157-157 tie.

"These are still valuable outcomes," Park said. "Regardless of colors, we wanted to win any medal, because we have trained so hard for so long."

In the mixed event, South Korea trailed early before rallying over the final two ends to force a shoot-off. Park said she could live with the result, after Choi shot a 9 with his final arrow.

"For the mixed event, my goal was to have the kind of performance that I could be satisfied with, and I think I did that," Park said. "I tend to struggle with nerves at times and let jitters affect my competition. But today, I was able to keep them under control."

India swept all five compound gold medals at the previous Asian Games three years ago and won the first two compound gold medals Wednesday. But with South Korea having pushed India in both the women's and mixed team events, Park said she feels the gap has narrowed.

"I knew they won all the gold medals at the last Asian Games but once I competed against them, I didn't get the feeling that they were unbeatable and we could compete against them," Park said. "We will have more opportunities against them and hopefully, we will be better against them next year."

Park has also made it to the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday, her one last chance to add to her medal collection.

"I have one each of silver and bronze here, and I will try to get gold tomorrow," she said with a smile.