Korean youth movement overcomes miss to take Shanghai final

The anticipated recurve men’s team final pitted a debuting youth team from Korea against a young – but extremely experienced – Netherlands group.

It was tight from the beginning, with both the team in white and team in orange posting 55 points for the opening salvo, to split the set points, 1-1.

In the second set, Lee Seongjun couldn’t get an arrow off.

“I was just so nervous,” he admitted. “I was trying to stand up and find my position but I couldn’t and I lost it.”

The arrow landed, with a metallic ping, in the steel protection of the laser-spotting system for arrows in the target. Korea still shot 48 points for the series, but it lost them the set.

Lee recovered his composure in the third and the young men in white recovered the match, too, with a point more than the Netherlands: 56-55.

Drawn at 3-3, the match went to the last set of regulation.

The Dutch group – Rick van der Ven, Sjef van den Berg and Mick de Bakker – posted their best six arrows of the match, for 56 points. Their Korean opponents, their best six arrows, too – and it was a point more than the Netherlands.

Despite the miss, these Korean first-time international athletes won the gold final, 5-3.

“It was really an honour to get to the top of the podium in my first international event,” said Han Jaeyeop.

Park Seongcheol, meanwhile, said he “felt the thrill” in his arms and legs, shooting in a finals arena in front of TV cameras and a crowd. Lee added that he hoped to have opportunity to represent the Korean senior team again.

Sjef also shoots in the individual gold medal match at the first stage of the year’s Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai.

“The shots were good,” he said. “And it’s good to have the opportunity to practice out on the finals field of play before the afternoon.”

India beat Great Britain in straight sets in the recurve men’s bronze medal match. The Indian squad posted nearly a 57-point average over the three six-arrow series.

Olympian Larry Godfrey was a bright spot in the Brits’ performance: He dropped five of his six arrows into the 10-ring as lead archer in the British rotation.