Korea on top in Shanghai – but not given an easy ride

It was always going to be difficult to hold back the great white sharks – but many people put up a fight.

Big names fell by the wayside in the third round, though – and that thinned the ranks of potential challengers. Crispin DUENAS, Canada’s seventh seed, was one such archer to drop out. He lost out to Swede Andreas SKALBERG in his first head-to-head of the tournament in a tight match that went five sets.

World Champion Maja JAGER lost to Paralympic Champion Zahra NEMATI in the fourth round. She was philosophical about the defeat.

“I had one bad shot today and that was it,” said Maja. “I’m pretty satisfied with my shooting and looking forward to the team event. It’s always fun and hopefully we can win a match or two.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s brackets, Bernardo OLIVEIRA was giving a creditable performance against his own world champ, LEE Seungyun.

“All the pressure was on him,” explained Bernardo. “We were shooting the same scores in the warm-up so I knew I had a chance.”

A few high arrows from the Brazilian – including one seven and one eight – and Korean LEE closed the door: 6-0. Even so, it’s the furthest OLIVEIRA has ever made it in international competition.

LEE and teammates KU Bonchan, OH Jin Hyek and KIM Woojin – the top four seeds – all featured in their own quarterfinal match.

The USA’s Brady ELLISON, who was the highest ranked non-Korean in qualification after finishing fifth, raced to a 4-0 leads against LEE. But he eventually succumbed.

With only five set below the 29-point mark throughout his matches, ELLISON was on point. “I just had a couple of shots at the wrong moment that hung up on me,” he explained.

“And one of them happened to be on the end that I needed to win. I should have beaten him 6-0. But I didn’t.”

A flash of honesty from Brady, though: “I’m getting really sick of coming fourth to eighth.”

The person to derail the Korean train: A relatively unknown archer from Indonesia. Although an international athlete since 2008, EGA AGATHA Riau has not been a household name.

In Shanghai, he qualified sixth – then progressed steadily until a quarterfinal with OH Jin Hyek.

The match went to a shoot-off, which EGA AGATHA won. Both archers shot 10s, but Riau’s was better – and the noisy Indonesian squad celebrated.

“I’ve won many matches with a shoot-off, but not against him!” Riau was, understandably, thrilled. “We are in the team competition tomorrow. I’d like to shoot against Korea again.”

KIM Woojin was run close by Spanish archer Miguel ALVARINO GARCIA in their quarterfinal but, in the end, he won the match, as did LEE and KU – guaranteeing at least one Korean in the final.

In the semis, KIM beat LEE, KU beat Riau – ensuring, in just the way the Koreans like it, that the recurve men’s gold will travel home with them at Shanghai’s conclusion.

As will the women’s: New girls and top two seeds KANG Chae Young and CHOI Misun finished strong in a pair of scary semifinal clashes. The pair will contest the top of the women’s podium after KANG beat Olympic Champion KI Bo Bae and CHOI saw off Karina WINTER in the closing phase of eliminations.

Bo Bae, back on the Korean team after missing out in 2014, admitted to feeling some serious nerves before the event: “I came to discover what would happen,” she revealed, in quite a mysterious fashion. “I’m not going to change anything  – just enjoy the rest of the matches.”

KI can’t be upset with her semifinal. She shot two perfect 30s to close out, teammate KANG stepped up, delivered a 30 to finish, too – and took the match.

The great white sharks are back.

Read more about Shanghai 2015.