BEIJING — The South Korean women started Sunday by smashing the world record and then got what they really came to the Olympics to get, what they always come to the Olympics to get: the archery team gold.

Through wind, rain and noisy spectators, Yun Ok-Hee, Joo Hyun-Jung and Park Sung-Hyun women delivered South Korea’s sixth straight gold in the event. The streak is only that short because this is only the sixth time the women’s team competition has been held.

For the first time, the Olympic team competition is using a 24-arrow format. Each side takes eight turns firing three arrows, one by each archer. A shot hitting the 12.2-centimeter (4.8 inch) inner ring earns a 10, and a perfect total score would be 240. So when the Italians finished with 217 points against South Korea in the quarterfinals under hazy but still conditions, it was an impressive score and the third highest by any team all day.

Yet they were pulverized. The South Koreans hit the center ring with 15 of their 24 shots. Their nine other arrows were all in the next ring for 9 points, for a total of 231 points, beating their own world record of 228.

Park scored 10 with all but one arrow but acknowledged that she looked unhappy while competing. “We are happy to break the world record but what matters most is to get the gold medal this afternoon,” she said.

And the elements did get tougher as the event continued. The main archery arena in Beijing is narrow, with seats closer in and more steeply raked than in Athens four years ago. The 2008 design brings some protection from the wind, but in a sport that emphasizes concentration, it also puts the competitors right next to the fans.

And in archery, where the action is, fundamentally, a tiny twitch of the fingers, closer is better and close-up is best of all. So in Beijing, there is a camera on rails at their archers’ feet. A third of the way down the range, three huts hide cameras that capture every twitch of their facial muscles and every wobble of their bow as they fire. When the athletes peek through their binoculars, they should be able to make out the camera lens buried in the bulls-eye. There is even a camera with super slow-motion that makes visible the frequent bucks, wriggles and skids in the flight of the arrows, as the arc through the air at 200-kilometers, or 125 miles, an hour.

But what the flat-screen televisions in the press seats could not convey Sunday was the frenzy of the large South Korean and Chinese cheering sections, or the noise of the thunder, the sudden chill of the gusting wind and the brief ferocity of the downpour.

In the opening semifinal, China beat Britain, 208-202, amid the first breaths of wind and the start of the rain. The weather then deteriorated as France tried to halt South Korea.

Wind is the greatest enemy of archers, but arrows weigh only 300 grains, which is less than 20 grams and under 7/10th of an ounce, and a little water on the shaft can completely alter its flight.

The South Koreans, who had not shot anything worse than a nine in their quarterfinal started with two 8. Joo even shot a 7 at one stage. In all the South Koreans shot 213, a drop of 18 points. The French however suffered even more, their score dropped by 34 points from the quarterfinal to 184. The Koreans, shooting last, had won before their final three arrows.

“In Korea, we compete no matter what the conditions so the downpour did not bother us much,” Yun said later.

The French athletes said they were not distracted by the South Korean fans.

“I didn’t hear the crowd,” Sophie Dodemont said. “There was so much noise from the thunder.”

The deluge delayed the medal rounds for 30 minutes.

In the shootout for the bronze, France edged Britain by 202-201. It was tense, but as the damp crowd watched in silence and the arrows sped repetitively through the air, it was hardly exciting.

The reverse was true for the final. The South Korean fans, slightly outnumbered but better organized and brandishing soccer scarves, narrowly won the battle of the chants. Their team emphatically won the real competition.

The Korean fans fell dutifully silent during competition. But as their team pulled ahead, by 1 point after the first set of arrows, by five at halfway, and by 8 before the last set, some of the Chinese fans began to shout or whistle when a Korean was about to shoot.

Park needed just a 2 from the last shot to ensure victory but her aim was accompanied by a particularly long, loud blast on a whistle. She hit a 10, her fifth in eight shots in the final, to make the final score, 224-215.

The intense Korean Olympic preparation had included “concentration training,” Joo said. “We knew we would have to face the noise of the crowd, especially from the Chinese spectators. We trained ourselves to endure those noises.”