大象传媒

Britain's archers have an excellent chance of winning individual and team medals, but the South Koreans will be the ones to beat in Beijing when the competition gets underway on Saturday.

Archery accounted for three of the nine gold medals South Korea won in Athens four years ago, and they have a deep pool of talented archers who are all more than capable of winning medals.

Athens gold medalist and 12-arrow world record holder will lead the South Korean women's squad, while the men's team will include , the reigning world champion.

South Korea have won 14 of the 22 archery Olympic golds on offer since the 1984 Los Angeles Games, with the women taking 11 and men winning three teams titles.

The women are phenomenal - winning the individual gold at every Olympics since '84, and every team title since the Seoul Games in '88.

The men are becoming increasingly dominant themselves, having won the team titles in Sydney 2000 and Athens four years ago, though no South Korean has won the men's individual gold.

That said, Im Dong-Hyun is expected to put an end to that, as favourite for the men's gold in Beijing.

So why are the South Koreans so good?

Probably because of extensive preparation, coupled with state-of-the-art training techniques.

Training is only part of the equation though and some of the Korean archers believe they have physiological, mental and spiritual traits that set them apart from the rest.

Yoon Ok-hee recently told an interviewer she believed that Korean women were dextrous due to heightened sensitivity in their fingers, making them more adept at "feel" sports such as archery.

That theory may also go some way to explaining why South Korea continues to produce an abundance of top-class women golfers.

Oh, and it is not just the archers that are world class - the coaches aren't bad either!

Indeed, Britain hired a world class Korean coach three years ago, and there is no doubting that Peter Suk, as the national Head Coach, has had a massive impact.

Just ask the six British archers preparing to take part in the Olympics.

So yes, South Korea will dominate the Olympic archery tournament, of that you can be sure.

But thanks to our own South Korean influence, British archers will be there or thereabouts when the competition gets down to its final stages.

Oh, and the South Koreans are not invincible - Britain has beaten them in team competitions this year. Now let's hope they do it when it really matters, in Beijing!