Gwangju: Choi Yong-hee clinched a bronze medal in the men's individual compound event, marking South Korea's first medal at the World Archery Championships. Choi triumphed over Curtis Broadnax from the United States with a score of 146-145 in a closely contested bronze medal match held at the May 18 Democracy Plaza in Gwangju, located 270 kilometers south of Seoul.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the world championships, which commenced on Saturday, initially saw South Korea missing out on medals in the men's, women's, and mixed team events in the compound category. Among the South Korean archers, Choi was the only one, male or female, to advance beyond the round of 32 in individual competitions.

In individual compound matches, archers shoot 15 arrows, three per end over five ends, with cumulative points deciding the winner. The maximum possible score is 150, and ties are resolved with a shoot-off, where the archer closest to the center of the target wins. Choi's journey to the bronze included a narrow victory over James Lutz of the United States, 147-146, in the round of 16, followed by a win against Yagiz Sezgin of Turkey, 148-147, in the quarterfinals.

Choi faced Nicolas Girard of France in the semifinals, where they were tied at 149 after five ends. In the shoot-off, Choi's shot of 9 fell short to Girard's 10, placing him in contention for the bronze. In the decisive bronze medal match, Choi was trailing Broadnax 117-116 with one end remaining but managed a comeback by shooting three consecutive 10s, while Broadnax scored 9-10-9 in the final end.

This victory marked Choi's first career individual medal at the world championships. Expressing his emotions, Choi stated, "I am really happy. Obviously, I wanted to win the gold medal here but I had that disappointing loss in the semifinals. It wasn't easy early on in the bronze medal match but I am still happy to win the first medal for our country here."

The championships will proceed with the knockout matches for the women's individual event in compound and the qualification rounds for the men's, women's, and mixed team events in recurve. The team recurve medals will be awarded on Wednesday, followed by the men's medals on Thursday and the women's medals on Friday, the competition's final day.

Gwangju is hosting the archery worlds for the first time since the southeastern city of Ulsan played host in 2009.