Korea dominates recurve eliminations in Shanghai

Recurve Men 

The 1/16 round featured powerhouse performances from the Korean team, and some surprises. The famous Korean IM Dong Hyun easily advanced to the 1/8th; however, teammate OH Jin Hyek did not have an easy task against Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA/33). The Olympic champion, who led the field in qualifications, trailed 1-3, but came back to lead 5-3, helped by unfortunate arrows from VALLADONT. The last end was tied, giving the match to the Olympic champion. The third Korean, 18-year-old LEE Seungyun, second in qualifications, defeated Rahul BANERJEE (IND) 6-2. Another Korean, JIN Jae Wang (No. 3, photo), defeated Markiyan IVASHKO (UKR) in a tight match. 

Taylor WORTH (AUS), who famously took out world No. 1 Brady ELLISON (USA) at the London Olympic Games, met him again in the first round this morning. Both athletes were close, WORTH winning the first set and ELLISON the second for a tie at 2-2. The American took command to lead 4-2, but the Australian resisted for a tie at 4-4, and then won the final set to make this his fourth match play victory versus ELLISON in a World Cup or Olympic Games. 

Mauro NESPOLI (ITA), who won Olympic team silver in Beijing and gold in London, faced DPR Korea’s Chol JON. After ties at 1-1 and 2-2, NESPOLI took the lead 4-2, but the match became tied again after he shot a 7 in the fourth set. Finally, the Italian won the fifth set 26-25 to take the match. His teammate Alberto ZAGAMI (No. 25) upset No. 8 seed Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) in a shoot-off, (9-8). 

China lost their best athlete when World Cup Final bronze medallist Gael PREVOST (FRA) upset the Olympic bronze medallist DAI Xiaoxiang 6-2. Another French archer, No. 19 Thomas AUBERT, lost to Russia’s Bair TSYBEKDORZHIEV (No. 51). 

Olympic silver medallist Takaharu FURUKAWA (JPN), 2008 Olympic champion Viktor RUBAN (UKR), and Olympians Juan Rene SERRANO (MEX) and Rick VAN DER VEN (NED) also advanced to the round of 16, as did Asian champion Khairul Anuar MOHAMAD (MAS), silver medallist at the Shanghai World Cup in 2011, after surviving a shoot-off. 

The 1/8 elimination round featured several duels between teammates, and a rare fight between the last two individual Olympic champions – OH and RUBAN. Oh took charge to lead, and eventually outshoot RUBAN, 2-0, 5-3 and 7-3. Taylor WORTH also gave IM Dong-Hyun a run for his money. The Australian trailed 3-5 but outscored the two-time Olympic team champion 29-27 in the final set. However IM was superior in the shoot-off (8-7) to take the win. In the match between teenagers PREVOST and LEE, the French archer led 2-0, but LEE came back to win 7-3, meaning the four Koreans have won all their matches so far. Italy’s NESPOLI defeated teammate ZAGAMI 6-4, and VAN DER VEN defeated fellow Dutch archer Sjef VAN DEN BERG 6-2. FURUKAWA trailed teammate Shungo TABATA from the start, came back to tie at 5-5, but lost the match in a close shoot-off (both shot 9s). Finally, Khairul Anuar MOHAMAD qualified easily to advance to the next round. This means there will be six competitors from Asia and two from Europe in the quarterfinals! 

The scores of the quarterfinals were relatively low due to poor weather conditions. Top qualifier OH took the first two sets against NESPOLI. He led 2-0, 4-0, and 5-1 after the third set ended in a tie. The Italian archer won the fourth set, but a tie in the final set gave one more crucial point to OH, who won the match 6-4. OH’s teammate LEE lost the first set of his match against TABATA, but then scored 59 points to take the lead 4-2. The fourth set was tied (27-27) and TABATA forced a shoot-off thanks to a better final set (10-9-9 to 10-9-8). He outscored LEE 10 to 9 in the shoot-off, to take the win. Meanwhile MOHAMAD suffered a bad first set (23) against VAN DER VEN, but pulled himself together and delivered 29 points in the second set to tie at 2-2. Both archers then shot 26 points, moving the score to 3-3. Both archers then won one set each, ending in a draw. MOHAMAD was perfect in the shoot-off, advancing with a 10 versus a 7 from VAN DER VEN. Finally, JIN Jae Wang (No. 3) didn’t seem to suffer too much from the bad weather conditions: he never scored less than 28 points per set to edge out his more experienced teammate IM Dong Hyun, 7-3. 

In the first semi-final, OH didn't leave anything to chance versus opponent MOHAMAD. The Olympic champion needed just three sets to qualify, and took them for a shutout victory (6-0). Korean teammate JIN easily won the first two sets of his semi-final against TABATA. The Japanese archer brought the match to 2-4 and tied JIN at 29-29 in the fourth set, but the Korean archer prevailed, concluding the match with a perfect 30 to take his spot in the gold medal match versus OH. 

Recurve Women 

Four Koreans competed in the 1/16 elimination round. Double Olympic champion KI Bo Bae and former World Cup Final winner YUN Ok-Hee defeated Russia’s Ksenia PEROVA and Kristina TIMOFEEVA, respectively. No.5 ranked JOO Hyun-Jung (KOR) also qualified. The fourth Korean, top-ranked CHANG Hye Jin, trailed Olympic bronze medallist Mariana AVITIA (MEX) after one set. The Korean archer turned up the heat while AVITIA had several difficult arrows, giving CHANG the win 7-3. AVITIA’s teammate, Olympic silver medallist Aida ROMAN, took a quick victory to advance. 

Olympic team silver medallist CHENG Ming (CHN) faced the World Cup Final runner-up Deepika KUMARI (IND, photo), and at 5-1, it seemed the Chinese archer would take a quick victory. However, the world No. 2 ranked KUMARI reversed the situation: she came back to tie the match at 5-5, and won the shoot-off with a score of 10-9! 

Another interesting match featured Bérengère SCHUH (FRA) and Kaori KANAKAWA (JPN), who have both won Olympic team bronze medals in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Their match was tied at 3-3 after three sets; SCHUH then gave up two sets to her opponent, allowing KANAKAWA to clinch her spot in the 1/8th. 

The host country qualified two athletes for the next round: FANG Yuting and XU Jing, as did Chinese Taipei, with WU Chia-Hung and TAN Ya-Ting. The latter defeated Tatiana SEGINA (RUS), which means all Russian competitors are out in this category. 

Five-time Olympian Khatuna LORIG (USA) had a tight match against KANG Un Ju (PRK). After ties at 3-3 and 5-5, she lost the shoot-off, 8 to 9. LORIG’s former teammate from Barcelona 1992, Natalia VALEEVA, went through a similar scenario in her match against Mongolia’s Enkhtuya Altangerel. However after ties at 4-4 and 5-5, VALEEVA won the shoot-off 9-8. 

The 1/8 round was marked by major upsets for the top two Korean archers. Ukraine’s Anastasia PAVLOVA (No. 17) defeated the No. 1 CHANG Hye Jin thanks to her own good shooting and tough scores from CHANG (7-1). WU Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei outscored world No. 1 KI Bo Bae 7-3. The Olympic champion suffered several 8s and even a very unusual 6. The other two Korean archers, JOO and YUN, won their matches by large margins. Natalia VALEEVA, Aida ROMAN and TANG Ya-Ting also edged out their opponents to advance to the quarterfinals. 

Archers from Asia totally dominated the recurve quarterfinals. KUMARI trailed PAVLOVA after one set (25-27) before winning two set points to lead, 4-2. The Ukrainian archer came back (4-4) but KUMARI surpassed her in the final set for the win (X10-9-9 to 9-9-8). TANG took out ROMAN with a 6-0 shutout (27-24, 25-24, 25-22). YUN and VALEEVA tied in the first set (23-23), but the Korean archer outscored her opponent in the three sets that followed (30-25, 26-24, 27-26) for victory, 7-1. The second ranked Korean archer – JOO – was the only athlete to manage excellent scores despite the bad weather conditions: she shot 30, 29 and 28 to defeat WU, 6-0, and advance to the semi-finals. 

The semi-final between YUN and TAN was very tight, beginning with three even sets. YUN took the lead in the fourth set but TAN came back to tie it up, 5-5. Both ladies hit the 10 in the shoot-off, but YUN’s was closer, giving her a spot in the gold medal match. The other semi-final between KUMARI and JOO started in a tie at 26-26. The young athlete from India won the second set, but the Korean archer won the next one to tie at 3-3. KUMARI then scored 10-10-9 and 10-9-9 against the JOO’s 10-8-8 and 10-8-8. KUMARI clinched victory, noting: “It was a good day’s work but it took so long with all the rain. My shooting before the Olympics was good but after the Games I just started focusing on my feeling for the shot and that works better”, commented KUMARI, who will try to win her second World Cup stage on Sunday; her last World Cup victory was in Antalya last year. 

World Archery Communication