Japan's mixed recurve archery team won gold at the Asian Games on Monday with a 6-0 shutout of North Korea.
Tomomi Sugimoto and Takaharu Furukawa won the first set 36-35, scored a perfect 40 in the second and snared the third with a 38-36 score to prevent North Korea's Kang Un Ju and Pak Yong Won from getting on the board.
The mixed team event was included in the program of Asia's quadrennial multisport games for the first time.
Teams are awarded two points for registering the highest score after each archer has shot twice. If there is a draw, each team is awarded one. The first to five points wins the match.
"I put out all the power I had and it became really easy after Sugimoto scored (a perfect) 10 points (with the first arrow of the second set)," veteran archer Furukawa said after the match in Jakarta. "We were able to prove that Japan can reach the top in Asia.
"I hope this will help all Japanese archers have confidence."
"For archers who are aiming for the world's top class, I think they can take a lot of confidence and feel that they are reaching the level where they can compete on the world stage," Japan archery coach Nobukane Tanaka said. "It was a wonderful medal for Japan."
But the coach noted that more work is needed in the approach to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics if Japan is to challenge South Korea's dominance in the sport.
Bronze in the recurve archery mixed team competition went to China, which defeated Mongolia 6-2.
In women's recurve team competition, South Korea won gold with a 5-3 victory over Taiwan. Japan won the bronze medal, defeating China 6-2.