Trending up/down: Stock take after Antalya

For the first time in a quite a while, there were no repeat winners from stage one to stage two of the world’s premier international archery circuit. Stage two of the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup saw JC Valladont, Ksenia Perova, Sarah Sonnichsen and Chen Hsiang-Hsuan take individual honours.

Only Valladont had ever won a stage before, back in Wroclaw in 2015.

The biggest news of the tournament was Sara Lopez’s winning streak coming to an end – and she’s included at the bottom of this list – but after coming out on top of 31 consecutive international matches and taking five stage wins in a row, she couldn’t trend any other direction. It’ll be a while before the world number one’s record is broken.

Trending up

1. JC Valladont: World number one for the first time in his career, Valladont joins illustrious company as one of only two Frenchmen to reach the position – the other was Lionel Torres. His win over Brady Ellison in the Antalya final was determined.

“It would have been tough [to win],” Brady said afterwards. “I had to shoot 30s to win, 29s to tie. It would have been a very, very tough match to win.”

2. Chinese Taipei: The second of the new wave of Asian compound nations to collect its first individual gold medal in the discipline in Antalya (Korea did the same a few years back), Chinese Taipei is developing into a competitor across the board. Chen Hsiang-Hsuan won the compound men’s competition and the squad also took recurve men’s team and mixed team golds.

3. Sarah Sonnichsen: Not only did the world-number-two ranked Dane win her first Hyundai Archery World Cup stage individually, she also took gold medals in the mixed team and team competitions.

Honourable mentions: Italian recurve men, USA, Ksenia Perova, Thomas Chirault, Great Britain, Spain’s mixed team, Danish compounders

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1. India: Off the back of a number one seeding from Deepika Kumari, the women’s and mixed teams could have done more. Kumari and partner Dhaniram Basumatary were steamrolled in the first round of the pairs event, 6-0, by Belarus. While the women then beat Belarus in the first round, they couldn’t do any damage to Olympic silver medallist Russia in the quarterfinals, losing 6-0. An opportunity missed?

2. Japan: Despite picking up a silver in the recurve women’s team event and a bronze in the recurve men’s – some things just didn’t go the Japanese squad’s way in Antalya. Ren Hayakawa wasn’t on the same form that bagged her individual bronze at stage one – and London 2012 individual silver medallist Furukawa Takaharu lost in the second round to Britain’s Tom Hall (ranked 485th in the world ahead of the event).

3. Turkey: Over the few years prior, Turkey had done well at its home leg of the world tour. No medals in 2017, though, and a break of runs on the podium. Both Demir Elmaagacli and Evren Cagiran – Hyundai Archery World Cup Final qualifiers, Demir the winner in 2015, of previous years – had good shots in the compound men’s event, but lost in the last 16.

Honourable mentions: Iran, Ukraine, Sara Lopez, Marcella Tonioli

The second stage of the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup took place on 6 to 11 June in Antalya, Turkey.

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