Olympic Champion Park Sung-Hyun untouchable today!

The first day of the week saw the Qualifications in Recurve Women category. Grey sky in Leipzig with some rain, but not too much for the best archers in the world! With 38 teams registered in this category, competition at the Festwiese was tough and exciting as only 16 teams were to qualify for the next round (the eliminations on Thursday). Only the final 8 teams will earn an Olympic place for their team. The Korean, Park Sung-Hyun, defending World and Olympic Champion was untouchable today leaving her first pursuer 16 points behind!  After the first distance (70 metres) the individual ranking saw Park (KOR) leading with 337 points. Just behind her on the same score were Italian Valeeva and French Schuh. Four archers followed with 336, namely Shen (TPE), Hayakawa (JPN), Choi (KOR) and Berezhna (UKR). The interesting thing at that point was that nine countries were represented in the top 10. Korea was not monopolizing the first three places for a change, with Park, Choi and Lee ranked 1st, 6th and 17th, respectively! There was still a long way to go, and positions could still move a lot. 

Three ladies with the same score. At the halfway mark of qualification there were the Italian Valeeva and the two Koreans Choi and Park were inseparable at that point: they all scored 681 after 70m and 60m, but it was the European archer ranking 1st thanks to forty 10s, whereas the two Asians achieved thirty-nine and thirty-eight 10s respectively. At 4th and 5th place were Zhang (CHN) and Shen (TPE), both with 675 points. The French archer Schuh, who ranked 3rd after the first distance lost three places at the second distance (6th with 673). 

An amazing run for the Olympic Champion, Park, saw her leading all her opponents by 12 points after the third distance (50m)! The Italian Valeeva was standing fast, remaining at the 2nd place with 1014 points, the same score as 3rd seed Choi (KOR). Behind these three, some athletes were fighting hard to stay in top positions: Schuh (FRA) ranked 4th with 1008 points, Zhang (CHN) 5th with 1007 points, Hayakawa (JPN) 6th with 1003 points, Shen (TPE) 7th with 1002 points and Lee (KOR) 8th with 1000 points. 

The Queen of Archery, Miss Park finished the day with 359 points (out of a possible 360) at 30m and a comfortable advantage of 16 points to easily secure first place. Her first pursuer was eventually Valeeva who gained 4 points over Choi with whom she had been tied for a long time. The Italian totalled 1369 while the Korean scored 1365. With eight nations represented in the top 10, only Korea could rank its three archers in the best places with Park 1st, Choi 3rd and Lee 10th. 

With 38 teams registered in this category, the team competition promised a tough and exciting competition: only 16 teams were to qualify for the next round (the eliminations to take place on Thursday) and only the first final 8 teams will then win an Olympic spot for their team! Korea, unsurprisingly, led from start to end. After the first distance, they already had a 20-point advantage over their first pursuer Chinese Taipei (977) and even more over China (973). 

The Koreans were the only team to pass the 2,000 barrier half-way (2026 points), leading the ranking in front of China (1968) and Poland (1966). The cut (qualifying limit) to go on to next round was provisionally held by Colombia, 16th in place with 1889 points. 

After 108 arrows, the favourite team Korea, was well on top with 3040 points. China was ranked 2nd with 2964 points. Two teams were very fighting a close battle just behind the top two teams: Russia with 2953 points and Poland with 2952. The cut at this point was held by Kazakhstan at 2847 points. At this time Turkey, Germany, Spain and Belarus were part of the unlucky teams, not qualified within the best 16! 

At the end 79 points (!) was the difference between the best team Korea (4092) and the second, China (4013). Amazing what the Korean ladies did once again. Third was Poland with 4003 points. In the battle for qualification to the elimination rounds on Thursday, Colombia had to go to a shoot-off with Turkey. These two teams were tied at 3875 points after 432 arrows. The South Americans girls scored 10-9-8, while the Turkish shot 9-9-7, to give themselves the difficult task of facing Korea in the 1/8 elimination. 

It is worth mentioning that to be in the top 16 teams, the team members had to shoot an average of 1292 points each. Moreover, 45 ladies today surpassed the 1300 barrier. Such results had never been seen before! These two statistics prove that the level in Recurve Women keeps increasing. 

The competition will continue on Tuesday with the Recurve Men getting Qualifications Round. 

Ludivine Maitre Wicki 
FITA Communication