LE Chien-Ying wins individual gold for Chinese Taipei

Tight matches, lots of shoot-offs and a couple of surprise medal runs produced quite unexpected results on recurve finals day in Taipei. Mongolia and Japan contested the recurve men's gold medal match - while the last two recurve women were in their first continent final!

Recurve Women
Three nations dominated the recurve women's competition: Korea, India and Chinese Taipei. Not everything went the host country's way, though: Chinese Taipei's TAN Ya-Ting - fresh from a top-10 finish at the World Championships - lost in the 1/8 eliminations to Dola BANERJEE from India. BANERJEE did not go much further: she lost her quarter-final match to JUNG Dasomi. BANERJEE's teammate, favourite Deepika KUMARI, was also eliminated - by the last Chinese Taipei athlete left in the competition, LE Chien-Ying. It was down to Bombayla Levi LAISHRAM to secure Indian representation in the finals - and she managed it, beating CHOI Misun (KOR). JEON Sungeun lost to her Korean teammate JOO Hyung Jung in straight sets, and JOO claimed the last semi-final spot.

JUNG and LAISHRAM took their semi-final to a full five sets, but it was JUNG that emerged on top: 6-4. Meanwhile, against all expectations - since JOO had cruised into this stage of the competition - host-country athlete LE Chien-Ying beat JOO in straight sets, preventing an all-Korean final. JOO could not even take the consolation bronze: a 5-5 draw after a regulation five sets with LAISHRAM forced a shoot-off, which the Indian archer promptly won - with an arrow closer to the X. LE Chien-Ying (main photo) won gold, and became Asian Champion on home soil, with a convincing 7-1 victory over JUNG.

Recurve Men
The four mighty Korean recurve men all found themselves in the quarter-finals of their competition. One of them, JUNG Sung Won, had a tougher path there than most: In the previous last-sixteen round he had faced 2013 World Cup Finalist Khairul Anuar MOHAMAD (MAS). The first four sets were tied, but JUNG managed to win the last, 28-26. Final score: 6 set points to 4. JUNG's hot streak continued into his quarter-final match, where he beat his Korean teammate KIM Sek-Keoan in straight sets. KU Bonchan (KOR) eliminated Shungo TABATA (JPN), 6-2 - but Takaharu FURUKAWA claimed Japan a semi-finals spot thanks to a win over Denchai THEPNA (THA). Mongolia's Gantugs JANTSAN shocked everyone by taking out the last Korean, JIN Jae Wang - who just missed out on qualifying for the World Cup Final this season - in a one-arrow shoot-off.

Mirroring the women's competition, an all-Korea final was possible - if KU could beat Olympic silver medallist KURUKAWA and JUNG overcome JANTSAN. Neither managed it: KURUKAWA completely outclassed KU in a 6-0 win, and JANTSAN beat a second Korean in a row in a shoot-off! The Korea derby - for bronze - went in JUNG's favour, after yet another one-arrow shoot-off: he shot his arrow into the X. The stage was then set for FURUKAWA (photo) to prove he was worthy of gold, by shooting only 10s to win three straight sets with perfect 30s. Takaharu FURUKAWA's resume, with Olympic runner-up and now an Asian Championship title, is starting to look quite impressive!

Recurve Mixed Teams
Korea and Chinese Taipei had a bye into the quarter-finals after the elimination round last Wednesday. Joining them today: Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, India, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. CHOI Misun and KU Bonchan - Korea's pair - beat Mongolia's Nur Aliya GHAPAR and Khairul Anuar MOHAMAD easily, 151-142. Deepika KUMARI and Jayanta TALUKDAR, representing India, had no trouble dispatching Bishindee URANTUGALAG and Gantugs JANTSAN of Mongolia. TAN Ya-Ting and KUO Cheng-Wei struggled against Kazakhstan's Farida TUKEBAEVA and Denis GANKIN - but the Chinese Taipei team managed to qualify for the semi-finals, 146-143, after 16 arrows. Meanwhile, tied at 148, Japan's Ayano KATO and Takaharu FURUKAWA scored 18 in their shoot-off with Indonesia, unfortunately their opponents Ika Yuliana ROCHAWATI and Riau Ega AGATHA both shot 10s.

No such tension in the semi-finals: Korea dropped just 6 points from a possible 160 to beat Indonesia 154-139, and India managed a 153 against the host-country's 144. TAN and KU quickly recovered, and claimed bronze for Chinese Taipei with a win over Indonesia. The gold medal went to KUMARI and TALUKDAR (photo), and India, 146 points to Korea's 141 - which was well below the level they shot in the previous two rounds (151, 154).

The conclusion of the recurve finals marked the end of the 2013 Asian Championships. In 2015, the 19th Asian Championships will head to Thailand... see you there!

World Archery Communication