Aida ROMAN heads top qualifying recurve Latin trio

“This is my personal best,” said Aida. She scored an impressive 674. “To do it at the first tournament of the year means things are going very well.”

An excellent 343 for the first 36 arrows put the Mexican star in position to beat PARK Sung-Hyun’s world record. Set at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games on her way to gold, PARK’s 682 sunk out of Aida’s reach as she neared the end of qualification.

But she was still way ahead of the rest, 10 points above her nearest competitor – and better than all of the men.

“I felt very comfortable shooting in the wind – but when it stopped, it felt different. That 343 half was my best ever – and the second half was good, but not excellent.”

“I didn’t think about the world record,” said the 25-year-old. “I just focused on shooting, on my technique and on doing everything the same as in practice.”

Since London 2012, ROMAN made the World Cup Final in 2013 and won her first world title at Nimes 2014, indoors.

Colombians Ana RENDON and Natalia SANCHEZ completed a Latin sweep of the top three., while current world champion Maja JAGER – who’s been speaking about her relocation to Korea – of Denmark took the seventh seed.

Host country China took silver in the recurve women’s team event at the London Games. XU Jing, FANG Yuting and CHENG Ming all claimed top-eight seeds here – and led the team rankings.

Longines has added a stage category to its Prize for Precision in 2014. At each stop on the tour, the athlete in a chosen division who shoots the most 10s during competition will win a watch. So far, ROMAN leads with 35 – just one point ahead of second seed RENDON.

See full results from recurve women’s qualification at the first 2014 Archery World Cup stage in Shanghai.