Nimes compound diverse but Koreans guaranteed recurve 1-2s in Nimes

Olympic Champion OH Jin Hyek and his Hyundai Steel professional teammate MIN Byeongyeon are set to contest recurve men’s gold at the third stage of the Indoor Archery World Cup tomorrow in Nimes. The Korean pair, seeded first and second after the ranking round, won their respective semifinals in one arrow shoot-offs.

Another Korean pro team has monolopy of the recurve women’s final. Hyundai Mobis’ KIM Eun Jung and KIM Min Jung each shot three perfect 30s in their four-set last-four victories.

While the women’s last four features the 13th seed, 25th seed and 22nd seed – top ranked Aida ROMAN (MEX) went out after an inconsistent second round performance – it’s the top four men shooting for the top four Nimes spots.

“I think it’s the first tournament I’ve ever been to where one-two-three-four were in the semis,” said bronze finalist Brady ELLISON. “Or at least that I can remember”. 

Top USA archer Brady made history by becoming the first person to win the outdoor Archery World Cup Final three times last year.

He was up against the Olympic Champ in the semis.

“OH and I had a good match. We both started off slow – and in the end he had me in sets, I had him on score. It’s fun. It is what it is.”

The Korean kicked off with a 27: an unusually loose set from the man who only dropped four points over the 60-arrow qualification session. The match went down to a tiebreaker.

“I shot the X line, OH put his on the cross,” said Brady. “The other two guys were inside-out 10s. You can’t really ask for better than that.”

“Tomorrow should be exciting.” 

And not just in the recurve competition. 

Top compound men’s qualifier Mike SCHLOESSER – the Flying Dutchman – dropped five more points in the head-to-heads than he did in the ranking round. But then he did shoot a perfect ranking round, a world first.

He’s up against veteran pro from the States Reo WILDE for Nimes 2015 gold.

Toja CERNE qualified as the 16th compound women’s seed before launching a run in the head-to-heads. Slovenia’s CERNE won the world field in Zagreb in 2014 before qualifying for the Archery World Cup Final in Lausanne.

On her way to the bronze final, she knocked out the USA’s Erika JONES and Naomi JONES from the UK. The two JONES had won the previous two Indoor Archery World Cup stages this season.

Toja lost to Jeanine VAN KRADENBURG in the semis, who will face her South African teammate Danelle WENTZEL in the gold medal match.

The top-seeded compound woman, world-record tying SONG Yun Soo – shooting for Korea’s Hyundai Mobis – went out to wildcard CERNE in the second round.

Back to Brady for the athlete’s take on the story of the season, this newfound Korean enthusiasm for 18-metre archery: “It pushed the level of the field up and we needed that. You need 30s to win your first match.”

“There are no ‘gimmies’ indoors anymore. I love it.”

See results from Nimes 2015.