High school student An San best in wind during first international qualification

Korea’s An San scored 649 out of a possible 720 points for the 72-arrow 70-metre ranking round to lead recurve women’s qualification at the fourth stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Berlin, Germany.

“As you can see, the wind was blowing very strong. I concentrated on my pace and technique and that’s why I was able to qualify first,” she said.

“When the wind is blowing strong, I first focus on my aiming point on the target, and then my balance when shooting. Today, my average points were good for these conditions.”

The 18-year-old is a high school student in Gwangju, Korea.

She’s shooting in her first senior international tournament in Berlin, having previously competed at the World Archery Youth Championships in 2017. Korea has sent its reserve team to the fourth stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup.

An San had one more point than Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chia-En over qualification. Chinese archer An Qixuan was third with 644 points.

Tan Ya-Ting, newly crowned World Archery Champion Lei Chien-Ying, Melanie Gaubil, Jeon Ina and Jung Dasomi completed the top eight. Dasomi beat Germany’s Lisa Unruh in a shoot-off for the last top-eight bye after the pair tied on 633.

Chinese Taipei seeded top in the recurve women’s team competition, beating Korea by 10 points with a combined score of 1928.

In 36 appearances at stages of the Hyundai Archery World Cup, this is only the second time that the Korean women have not ranked first in the team event. (The only previous time was the Shanghai stage in 2016. There they also seeded second.)

An San, paired with top recurve man Oh Jin Hyek, ranked first as a mixed team.

The fourth stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place on 1-7 July in Berlin, Germany.

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