Actualités

Chinese Taipei stuns record-breaking Korea in women’s team showdown at Gwangju

09 septembre 2025

Gwangju, Korea

Vrai nom:

Chinese Taipei recurve women team celebrating.

Chinese Taipei pulled off the biggest upset yet at the Gwangju 2025 Hyundai World Archery Championships, stunning serial Olympic gold medallists Korea to reach the recurve women’s team gold medal match.

“I’m so emotional and excited right now,” said Chiu Yi-Ching, who won mixed team bronze at the Madrid 2025 Hyundai Archery World Cup. “In this group, we’ve never beaten Korea before, so it’s our first time. We had good teamwork and got the result.”

“We believed in ourselves and in our teammates even when we were not in the best condition,” added 17-year-old Hsu Hsin-tzu. “We still tried to focus on ourselves and trust each other. I think that’s the key point that made it possible.”

Korea’s An San – the women’s individual top seed – Lim Sihyeon and Kang Chaeyoung had set a new team world record this morning in qualifications, posting a combined total of 2070 across the three archers’ 72-arrow scores. That marked a remarkable 17-point improvement on the previous record (2053), which included Hermosillo 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final Champion Chaeyoung as part of the Antalya 2018 record-breaking team.

Despite that historic performance, the Korean trio could not follow up in the elimination rounds. A young, fearless Taipei team of Chiu, Hsu and Li Cai Xuan edged Korea in a tense shoot-off, 10-10-8 to 10-9-8.

Lim Sihyeon being watched by her Korean teammates.

The “condition” Hsu referred to was not the sodden field at the Gwangju International Archery Centre, which left all 277 recurvers wet-footed, but the fourth end when Taipei shot a six.

Even a single flailing arrow might have capitulated most teams, especially against a trio of Olympic gold medallists – An and Kang in Tokyo 2020, Lim in Paris 2024.

Yet instead of wilting to the sport’s most dominant side, Taipei hit two arrows in the 10-ring while their opponents faltered in the fourth set, forcing and winning archery’s sudden-death format.

Averaging just 19.7 years old and shooting together for the first time this season, the usual detriments of inexperience did not matter to Chiu, Hsu and Li. Stage finals, however, present a completely different challenge in handling nerves, particularly at a world championships.

“What we can do is just try to focus on ourselves, do our best in every single arrow, and then see what will happen,” said Li.

Chinese Taipei now face Japan tomorrow in the women’s team gold medal match at 5.18 Democracy Square. Earlier, the recurve mixed and men’s team medal matches will also take place.

All finals can be watched live with a subscription to archery+.