VAN DEN BERG “comes into his own”: takes Shanghai pole

“He’s been shooting very well for a while now – but it’s great to see him come into his own on the senior stage,” said Australian Taylor WORTH, sixth seed at the end of the 72-arrow ranking round.

Sjef VAN DEN BERG finished on 669, two points clear at the top. He has already won a European Championships team gold medal with the Dutch seniors – and added a world team silver at Belek at the end of 2013.

“My shots just went where I aimed, and how they felt,” said Sjef. “I haven’t got much to complain about. The score wasn’t special – but I think it’s because of the wind that no-one did better. It’s twirling, twisting in the stadium. I shot strong, and hoped for the best.”

VAN DEN BERG is no stranger to being top seed. He’s taken pole in qualification at the European stage of the Indoor Archery World Cup tour the past two years running, but was unable to convert both occasions into podiums. Here, Sjef plans to do better: “My confidence is pretty high. I feel good and the bow’s well tuned… so we’ll see.”

The 19-year-old Dutchman led India’s Jayanta TALUKDAR and Khairul Anuar MOHAMAD of Malaysia over the first half of the round – but while MOHAMAD stuck it out to finish second, TALUKDAR dropped to eighth.

Brazil’s recurve men looked strong over the first few ends. Fabio EMILIO and Bernardo OLIVEIRIA dropped off the pace, but shot well enough to make the team cut as 14 seeds. Teammate Marcus DALMEIDA qualified seventh individually: “I didn’t expect it, I just need to keep working hard.”

“As a team, we are confident,” the trio added. Although they say they don’t feel the pressure of a home Rio Games on the horizon – their progress will be watched with close interest throughout this tournament and over the next two years.

See full results from recurve men’s qualification at the first 2014 Archery World Cup stage in Shanghai.