Young Maja JAGER and LEE Seungyun world champions

Women
Maja JAGER concluded an incredible World Championships outing by winning individual gold in the recurve women's competition. The 21-year-old archer, who upset the two top-ranked archers in the world KI Bo Bae and YUN Ok Hee on her journey to the final, had an advantage. She had already tested the finals field in the morning as part of the Danish trio that won the women's team bronze medal.

She took the lead at the start of her final against Chinese Olympic team silver medallist XU Jing. When her opponent came back to 2-2, JAGER didn’t falter, recovering the advantage (and lead: 4-2) during the next end. The 23-year-old Chinese archer claimed the next set, though, with the help of a 7 - just outside of the 8 ring - from JAGER. At 4-4, the pair tied the next set, to set up a 5-5 draw - and a one-arrow shoot-off for the world champion title.

Both archers shot a 10/9 line-cutter, at two o' clock in the target face, in nearly exactly the same place. “I could feel it was a good shot so I was happy with it”, said JAGER. “And then she shot one just like it, almost – and I thought hers was in. Then I saw my agent at the target lift his arms up.” Maja JAGER was declared the winner by a millimetre. “Amazing. Great. Unbelievable...” was all she could say.

JAGER adds gold to the team bronze she won in her third World Archery Championships, making it three medals overall - and the most successful event ever - for Denmark, host of the next edition of the event in 2015.

With the silver, XU Jing, already decorated with international team and mixed team medals, climbs the World Championships podium for the first time.

The bronze medal match between YUN Ok Hee and Karina WINTER (GER) was a one-sided story. Olympic gold and bronze medallist in 2008, but absent from the international scene since 2010, the Korean archer added the world bronze medal. It concludes a very successful come-back season, which included victories at two World Cup stages and the World Cup Final. She needed just three sets to defeat her opponent WINTER, depriving the former indoor world champion of a first World Championships medal in outdoor archery.

Men
new young star was crowned in the men's competition. 18-year-old LEE Seungyun, winner of the last World Cup stage in August, faced Olympic and World Cup Final champion OH Jin Hyek in the final. In the first competition encounter with his Korean teammate over the last two seasons, LEE was the most impressive. After a draw in the first set, OH shot a 7 in each of the next two sets, giving LEE permission to lead 5-1. After a comeback attempt by the 32-year-old champion (3-5), another 7 cost him the fifth set. Victory to the young challenger, and an astonishing conclusion to LEE’s first senior international season!

In the bronze medal match, Crispin DUENAS took the opportunity to win his first World Championships medal at 27 years old. After defeating a string of top opponents in the elimination rounds (Olympic silver medallist Takaharu FURUKAWA, World Cup medallist Markiyan IVASHKO and world field champion Jean-Charles VALLADONT), the Canadian Olympian faced China’s DAI Xiaoxiang for the first time in competition.

Against the reigning individual Olympic bronze medallist and World Cup Final silver medallist, DUENAS stormed to victory in just three sets. Under the pressure to deliver a 10 with his last arrow to win, he blasted an arrow down for a perfect score - and for a well-deserved podium. “Surprisingly, it felt easy to execute my shot”, he commented. “It’s my first time out here in front of this big crowd at the World Championships, and I’m just really happy right now. I just kept it in my head that it’s exactly the same thing that I’m doing all the time. It made it a lot easier for me.”

Mixed teams
The golden Korean pair of reigning Olympic champions KI Bo Bae and OH Jin Hyek, both first-place qualifiers, shot their way to the top of the podium. Impressive shooting from the Koreans, combined with arrows out in the blue rings from the American Olympic medallists Brady ELLISON and Khatuna LORIG, resulted in a 148-139 victory for Korea. KI retains the mixed team world title she obtained in 2011 with IM Dong Hyun.

KUO Cheng-Wei and TAN Ya-Ting (Chinese Taipei), who won a World Cup title together in 2012, defeated defending silver medallist Mexico, composed of Aída ROMAN and Luis ALVAREZ, for the bronze medal in a tight match (145-144).

See you in København 2015 for the next edition of the Archery World Championships!

World Archery Communication

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