Antalya 2016: 6 takeaways from recurve men’s qualification

Notes from both sides of the line at Antalya 2016: The Antalya 2016 Hyundai Archery World Cup qualification – and the individual and team rankings for the final Olympic qualifier…

1. Korea’s groove

Ku Bonchan topped the ranking round for the Archery World Cup, followed by Kim Woojin and Lee Seungyun – for a Korea 1-2-3. Their combined score, 2050, was an incredible 37 points shy of the world record, shot by the Korean team at the last Olympics.

(Which says a lot about how good that team was.)

Ku said afterwards that it was “just another step on the road to Rio”. The trio has another month to ascend to the realms of incredible, in time for the Olympic arena.

2. Olympic places

Perhaps more important for 115 of the recurve men competing (exactly half the field) was where they seeded for the Olympic quota tournament.

Bair Tsybekdorzhiev, 15th ranked in the main event, topped that list.

He was followed by Jon Chol, Robin Ramaekers, Baard Nesteng and Jean-Charles Valladont, the recently-crowned European Champion who, despite winning gold in Nottingham, didn’t collect a place to the Games in the continental qualifying competition held at the same tournament.

“That’s the game,” said JC. “It’s all about the matches. I will now prepare with my team, by myself, and go out and hopefully win matches.”

3. Teams: In/out

There are three men’s (and three women’s) team places for Rio 2016 available in Antalya.

Promising squads like Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark – and more – all fell short of the top-16 spot needed to advance to the elimination phases.

Britain, France, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and a surprise Finland were among the teams who survived the cut.

Hosts Turkey, only recently with a single space in the men’s event in hand thanks to Mete Gazoz in Nottingham, edged out Thailand in a shoot-off for the last place in the last 16.

India took top seed, followed by Mexico and Germany.

4. Experience matters

Thirty-seven year-old Norweigan archer Baard Nesteng first made an Olympic appearance in 2000. His second, where the above photo is from, was London 2012 – and, in Antalya, he’s back trying to win Norway a place so he might take a third cap. He was one of many veteran archers rumoured to be attempting a run at Rio, but one of the few that made it to the qualification tournaments.

Baard shot three world events in 2015.

Antalya is his first in ’16, after an eighth-place finish at the European Championships in Nottingham. He was third in the continental qualifier.

“The Olympics is one of the highlights of shooting, so I really want to go there,” said Nesteng, who seeded fourth in the Olympic qualifying event. “The level is increasing every year, so it’s a really tough game.”

Antalya marks the largest quota tournament he’s competed in, since making his international debut in the late 90s.

“No matter how long the list is, you have to concentrate on your own performance and see how it goes,” he said.

5. Fourths

A number of teams already named their Olympic trios – even if they only had three spots in the bag. In a few cases, the fourths, or reserves, outperformed the top threes over the Antalya ranking round.

• USA  – Daniel McLaughlin, 4th, nation’s top qualifier
• GBR  – Ashe Morgan, 57th, nation’s 2nd qualifier
• MEX  – Luis Alvarez, 19th, nation’s 2nd qualifier

Maybe having the pressure off helps, or maybe – as Dan McLaughlin said – it’s about providing competition for the team: “I have a responsibility to those guys to shoot my best to help them train.”

6. Cuts

The cut for the top 104 in the Hyundai Archery World Cup stage: 646. (Since the top score was 686, it means all those that made it through were spread over just 40 points.) In the quota tournament, it was 597.