Ellison and Mucino-Fernandez prevent Korea clean sweep in recurve team finals

USA stopped a Korean clean sweep of recurve team medals as Brady Ellison and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez won gold in the mixed team event at stage three of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

Korea was on course for a second successive team hat-trick following a haul of three golds in Shanghai, but Ellison and Mucino-Fernandez edged a shoot-off against Kim Woojin and Lim Sihyeon after Chinese Taipei had beat India for bronze.

“My last arrow broke a little bit low and I figured they would be right about there so we took it to a shoot-off,” explained five-time Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Ellison, who won the USA’s first mixed team gold of the World Cup season alongside Casey Kaufhold in Antalya. 

There was nothing to separate the two pairs after the four regulation sets, but an uncharacteristic eight from Lim presented USA with a golden opportunity to top the rostrum.

Two nines proved good enough for victory leaving 20-year-old Mucino-Fernandez delighted after making a winning start to her mixed team career.

“It was really exciting, we didn’t only win against Korea we took it to a shoot-off so it was a really good match,” she said. “We were able to make the shots when we needed to so I’m really happy.”

“I could not have chosen someone with more experience in Brady. He’s there supporting me and we’re just there laughing and having a good time and making sure we’re both comfortable and confident.”

Korea had earlier looked unstoppable with a pair of straight-set victories in the women’s and men’s team finals.

The unchanged women’s trio of Lim, An San and Kang Chae Young were first to impress, beating China in conditions which had initially proved troublesome.

“At first the wind made it difficult to aim and point, but we helped each other and we concentrated on the match to build a good lead,” said Kang. 

“When we practice at the national centre in Korea we talk to each other so we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we can strategise and arrive at competitions in a good position,” added Lim. 

The men were just as good in their final against Chinese Taipei, with India completing another all-Asian podium to raise further excitement ahead of the Asian Games later this year. 

Competition concludes with recurve finals this afternoon in Medellin.

Podiums: Medellin 2023

Check full results on the World Archery website.

Recurve men’s team

1.  Korea (Kim Je Deok, Kim Woojin, Lee Woo Seok)
2.  Chinese Taipei (Su Yu-Yang, Tang Chih-Chun, Wei Chun-Heng)
3.  India (Dhiraj Bommadevara, Mrinal Chauhan, Tushar Prabhakar Shelke)

Recurve women’s team

1.  Korea (An San, Kang Chae Young, Lim Sihyeon)
2.  China (Li Jiaman, Wu Jiaxin, Yang Xiaolei)
3.  Chinese Taipei (Chiu Yi-Ching, Lei Chien-Ying, Peng Chia-Mao)

Recurve mixed team

1.  USA (Brady Ellison, Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez)
2.   Korea (Kim Woojin, Lim Sihyeon)
3.  Chinese Taipei (Wei Chun-Heng, Peng Chia-Mao)