Korea on top, Italy denied a chance to defend crown

Korea was expected to finish on top of the team and individual qualifications based on the fine performances they displayed over the World Cup season. They did not disappoint. Over the course of today’s 144-arrow round (36 arrows per distance at 70m, 60m, 50m and 30m) some other nations proved ready to fight for medals, too.

The day's top athlete was world N°1 KI Bo Bae (main photo), who gathered a huge 346 points at 70 metres, setting herself up to finish on top after the four distances (1376). “I am only here to enjoy the competition,” said the double Olympic champion. “As you know, the Korean national team is always hard to make, and this year we also had a tough selection process. That is why we will shoot well and win the gold medal.”

TAN Ya-Ting, the young archer from Chinese Taipei, scored 1371 points to place 2nd, just ahead of CHANG Hye Jin, who was selected for the Korean team over World Cup Finalist JOO Hyun Jung. Promising 19-year-old Olympian TAN, who doesn’t understand the English results announcements made during events, was not aware of the rankings until the very end. That, she said, helped her enjoy the shooting without focusing on how well she was doing. Considering that her best performance came at 70m, she could be a top contender for medals later this week.

Mexican Olympic silver medallist Aída ROMAN, who has been very consistent this season, ended up in 4th with 1368 points: “The qualifications are very important as a transition between training and competition. This is the average that I was shooting, and even though I was hoping for a little higher I am happy with the results. The weather conditions were very good despite a light wind making things a bit more complicated for me. It is normal to have more eyes on us after the Olympics, normal to have high expectations, but we try to get better every day. We are used to people observing us and putting a bit of pressure, but the main pressure is the one I put on myself”, commented ROMAN.

ROMAN is ranked ahead of World Cup Final winner YUN Ok Hee, who had inconsistent scores throughout the day and finished 5th. She was the top scorer at 60m (347) and 30m (357), but had a long way to climb after a disappointing showing of 331 at 70m (13th place), and a setback at 50m - where she posted 326 points, good for only 18th place.

The last three spots rewarding direct qualifications into the 1/16 round went to LE Chien-Ying (TPE), Medellin World Cup champion Inna STEPANOVA (RUS) and Maja JAGER (DEN).

As expected in the team event, Korea was the best by far, posting a total of 4106. Chinese Taipei (photo of TAN), champion of the Shanghai World Cup, was 2nd (4064) ahead of a surprising German team (4030). The Mexican women were 4th with 4018 points, but with the second-best score behind Korea at 70m, they should be a strong contender in the head-to-head matches as they strive to win their first world team medal.

Champion of the Medellin and Wroclaw World Cups - and expected to challenge Korea - India disappointed today, recording 3928 for a 12th place finish. It was still enough to qualify for the 1/8 round, open to the top 16 teams. However, reigning world champion Italy finished the day in 18th, four points shy of the cut, and will not have a chance to defend their title. It is the first time in many years that Italy will not shoot the team elimination rounds. “Some countries really improved and we did not expect such results,” commented Italian team member Guendalina SARTORI. “Fortunately, this World Championships is not a qualifier for the Olympic Games”, ended SARTORI.

Today marked the last time that recurve women will shoot the FITA Round at a World Championships, as per the decision voted last weekend by the World Archery Congress to replace recurve qualification at this event with the 70m round from 2015. The recurve men’s qualifications take place tomorrow.

World Archery Communication