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Shende, Sillitoe-Price surprise to close out youth championships

24 août 2025

Winnipeg, Canada

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Korea again tasted recurve defeat on the stage at Winnipeg 2025, losing both under-18 individual finals in a topsy-turvy day that saw four new individual champions crowned.

After cruising to gold in the under-18 mixed team by defeating the USA 6-2, things began to go awry for the team in white, who had dominated team day on Friday.

The first shock came when third seed Kim Yewon was beaten in a shoot-off by India’s Sharvari Somnath Shende in the under-18 individual final. Shende showed exceptional composure, delivering a near-perfect ten to win after the Korean had levelled the match from 5-1 down.

“Oh my God, it was amazing,” said the 16-year-old. “I’m just thinking that I will shoot my best. One arrow will decide if I’m going to be a world champion or not. My coach was telling me to be confident, believe in yourself – you’re going to be the champion.”

Shende becomes the third Indian woman to win the under-18 recurve world champion title after Deepika Kumari, who won in 2011 and Komalika Bari who won in 2021.

“I always had a dream to become the world champion, and this is my last year in the cadet category, so I feel very proud,” she said. “I feel I make my India proud.”

An even bigger upset occurred in the recurve men’s under-18 when Great Britain’s Alex Sillitoe-Price defeated Ukraine’s Serhii Seniura and then Korea’s Park Myungjae – who had already won two gold medals and was aiming for a third. Sillitoe-Price won in straight sets.

“I don’t actually know what I was feeling at the moment, but I got it, you know,” said Alex after the final against the second seed. “Hopefully we’ll keep winning and bringing it home.”

Sillitoe-Price capitalised on loose third arrows from the Korean in the first two sets and scored a 30 in the second end to lead 4-0.

It was a strong, confident display from a 15-year-old not short on ambition.

“I told my parents last year that one day I’d have a world gold medal, and here I am,” he added. “Honestly, it just means everything. I worked like crazy, I knew I could do it, and I shot every shot with 100% confidence that this was going to be it.”

“What do I think I can achieve? Olympic gold in LA. Beyond that, I want to compete at five Olympics like Brady [Ellison].”

After the break, Korea quickly restored some expectations by beating Great Britain for under-21 mixed team gold, with a little room to spare in a scrappy, error-strewn four-setter.

Korea’s Shin Seobhin then claimed gold in the women’s under-21 competition, defeating her under-par teammate Han Sol in the semi and then coming back against Olympic bronze medallist Angela Ruiz in a thrilling final.

The Mexican had raced to a 4-0 lead with strong shooting, but a barely-tied third end of 27 – with Ruiz’s third arrow perhaps just half a millimetre from an upgrade – shifted momentum. Shin came roaring back and forced a shoot-off, delivering an almost unbeatable 10.

“I’d experienced this kind of pressure before,” said Shin, laconically. “So I just focused on what I had to do – and that’s all I had to do.”

“I want to continue to attend tournaments like this and show what I’m capable of,” she added.

Just the under-21 men’s podium remained. After a high-quality bronze medal contest between Australia’s Jai Crawley and the USA’s Joshua Baek – both already medallists – Crawley added another medal after defeating Baek 6-4.

The final saw a Korea versus Chinese Taipei clash between Jang Joonha and Huang Li-Cheng. Huang, looking nervous, never gained momentum, while Jang scored five 10s across the three sets he needed to get the job done, in an aggressively confident performance.

“I came into this with the mindset of really going all out in the individual event and bringing home first place,” said Jang, who had lost to the USA on Friday. “My biggest goal is to become an Olympic Champion on the biggest Olympic stage.”

Chinese Taipei ended the week in a frustrating position: strong performances and a haul of silver medals, but finishing on the losing side of most key battles. The nation won only four of their thirteen matches on the big stage, putting them second in total medals behind Korea, without a single gold.

Recurve Sunday wrapped up a new set of champions and highlighted stars likely to emerge in senior competitions soon. Several athletes here are also expected at Gwangju 2025, making it highly likely that new senior world champions or Olympic medallists were on show in Winnipeg this week.