Olympic Champions Kim Woojin and Lim Sihyeon return in style at Shanghai
Kim Woojin and Lim Sihyeon made a stylish return to the international shooting line at Shanghai 2025, topping both the recurve men’s and women’s qualification pools at the second stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.
Kim’s last appearance on archery’s premier international circuit was the Tlaxcala 2024 Final, which he won. Lim also competed there, finishing fifth in October in Mexico.
“It definitely wasn’t easy, but today I was focusing on keeping my timing short,” said a cheerful Lim, the reigning women’s Olympic Champion. “Then the wind was kind of blowing and giving me a bit of trouble. What I had to do was just keep the timing as short as possible, and then luckily, the results followed in the end.”
“Maybe it’s a little bit too simple to say, but it was just hard. It was a struggle.”
Lim may have been distressed internally by the charging wind coming from behind the Yuanshen Sports Centre, but externally she looked composed, shooting 676 with 13 of the 72 arrows landing in the minuscule X-ring.
She looked as relaxed as ever amongst the 73 competitors in the women’s field. Whenever she wanted to reset her process, she took her time – showing the calmness of an experienced champion at just 21 years old.
Shanghai has been a platform of unbelievable prosperity for the world number one. The Korean never left the city empty-handed in her previous appearances, sweeping gold in individual, team and mixed team in 2023. She nearly repeated the feat last year, but Korea ultimately lost the women’s team gold medal match to China.
“It’s definitely a special place,” Lim added. “This is the first place I came to with the national team and I was able to get lots of medals last year as well, so it holds a special place for me.”
It was also business as usual for Woojin. The 32-year-old reigning Olympic Champion led the 91-athlete recurve men’s field dropping a score of 695 points.
He held the lead right from the first end, occasionally swapping the top position with compatriot Lee Woo Seok, but a shocking fall-off in qualifiers by the greatest recurve men archer of all time was never on the cards.
Like Sihyeon, Woojin admitted to some mental rust in the afternoon session.
“I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t go to Florida, but I’m happy to start my season off in Shanghai and I’m looking forward to the rest of the outdoor season,” he said, referencing Korea’s national trials that clashed with the season opener in the USA.
“I’d say I was a bit nervous because it’s been a while, but I’m happy because I shot well and want to keep this going for the individual eliminations too.”
A Korea one-two-three-four finish in the recurve men’s qualification round also secured the top seeds for the team event, with 23-year-old Seo Mingi set to participate in team eliminations for the first time at a World Cup event.
The recurve team eliminations take place tomorrow morning, followed by the compound men’s and women’s eliminations to follow in the afternoon.
Top seeds: Shanghai 2025
Full results on the event page.
Recurve Men
- Kim Woojin, Korea – 695
- Lee Woo Seok, Korea – 692
- Seo Mingi, Korea – 689 (personal best)
Eighteen archers shot 670+. Top-64 cut at 650.
Recurve Women
- Lim Sihyeon, Korea – 676
- Lee Gahyun, Korea – 672
- Michelle Kroppen, Germany – 671
Nine archers shot 660+. Top-64 cut at 609.
