Olympic qualification: men’s team match-by-match results at 2019 world championships

Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Korea, India and the Netherlands qualified recurve men’s teams to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by making the quarterfinals at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

The second-round matches that decide the Olympic spots are some of the tensest of the year. Even though they all take place at the same time on the eliminations field – they’re as important as any finals arena appearance.

Here’s a match-by-match rundown of the recurve men’s team Olympic quota head-to-heads at the world championships.

Read the round-up of Olympic team quota places won in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

Korea (1) beats Bangladesh  (16): 6-2

The Korean team shot two sets of 59 points before losing the third, 54-56. Last set was 55-50 in Korea’s favour.

Kim Woojin, Korea: “I don’t know how I feel right now but that was the most nervous I’ve ever been in competition.”

Md Ruman Shana, Bangladesh: “We feel very proud and we did our best. Unfortunately it was just the last end. We are always learning when we lose and we are going to work on our weaknesses to develop further.”

Lee Seungyun, Korea: “I don’t know about my teammates but I just told myself we just needed to tie the end in order to get the ticket to the Olympics.”

Great Britain  (8) beats Japan  (9): 6-0

A straight set victory, with Britain recording set scores of 57, 56 and 54 points.

Tom Hall, Great Britain: “I’ve never shot a match like that in my life. The noise was unreal and everything about the atmosphere was supercharged.”

Patrick Huston, Great Britain: “I said, after the first end, from a different perspective it felt like surfing. I was shooting the first arrow and the countdown clock would go three, two, one – and then this entire line of spectators would roar and I would hop onto the line on this wave of noise. I loved the intensity.”

China  (5) beats Italy  (12): 6-2

This young Chinese team upset some experienced Olympic medallists after closing with sets of 59 and 58 points. 

Feng Hao, China: “I was really nervous but I trusted my teammates. When I shot a bad arrow, they made it up straight away.”

Wei Shaoxuan, China: “I deserve to wear the national flag and I’m happy to tell everyone that we’ve won quota places for the Olympics.”

Australia  (13) beats Turkey  (4) in shoot-off

Defending Olympic bronze medallists shot perfect 30 in tiebreak to Turkey’s 25. 

Taylor Worth, Australia: “[Going to the Olympics] is what keeps us in the sport. It’s the pinnacle event for pretty much all sporting avenues. Securing spots this early… we can just get into big hard training blocks now and try and secure those spots for ourselves when the trials come.”

Chinese Taipei  (3) beats France  (14) in shoot-off

Chinese Taipei scored 29 to France’s 25 in a shoot-off for the Olympic team spot.

Tang Chih-Chun, Chinese Taipei: “I was very nervous and my heart was pounding. I don’t look nervous? Don’t believe it. It’s fake.”

Deng Yu-Cheng, Chinese Taipei: “I was ashamed because I shot a seven and an eight. But my teammates helped me and told me it was okay.”

Jean-Charles Valladont, France: “The weather was tricky, but practice was good, and even the match was good. But our opponents were really shooting strong. We managed to get to the shoot-off, again. I started with a bad eight followed by an eight low from Pierre and they shot 29. It is disappointing and sad, also to summarise the match on those three arrows only, but that’s the game."

India  (11) beats Canada  (6): 5-3

The Indian men shot one point better than Canada in each of first two sets to edge ahead.

Atanu Das, India: “I think this is the best thing we have ever done. This is a real turning point for Indian archery. We worked so hard to get to this point, because the last Olympics we didn’t qualify [a team].”

Crispin Duenas, Canada: “Today actually went, not bad. Team India – they were shooting really well. So, our cumulative score was actually higher than their’s, but that’s not the game so we lost.”

“I think it was a little bit of a surprise to my teammates on how intense it can get when you’re shooting for Olympic spots. So, I don’t think that they anticipated that. I knew exactly what to expect, but… well, big respect to them because they held their own.”

Kazakhstan  (10) beats USA  (7): 6-0

A huge upset of the two-time defending Olympic team silver medallists. 

Sanzhar Mussayev, Kazakhstan: “We prepared for this competition a lot, we did it carefully and that’s why we didn’t win by luck. We have gained experience over the years to understand how to shoot as a team and this is the result.”

Jack Williams, USA: “I think we didn’t shoot terrible but we didn’t shoot amazing like we did in Turkey. Overall, we are not overly upset with how we did. They shot amazing and sometimes you get a bad draw and they shot very good.”

Netherlands  (2) beats Ukraine  (18): 6-2

The Dutch men shot perfect 60 in third set to grab momentum in match. 

Steve Wijler, Netherlands: “I think the first round was a bit hard, so we had to settle a little bit and after that, it was okay. We knew we could win; we know how good we are as a team and that we can be world champs. I’m really happy with this team.”

Viktor Ruban, Ukraine: “We shot with one of the strongest opponents. We worked together and hard, but it didn’t go well, neither our way this time. Hopefully next year we’ll get to show more of our potential.”

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.