Lausanne 2014: recurve women’s competition preview

Preview the Lausanne 2014 Archery World Cup Final in the lead up to competition on 6/7 September.

Categories: compound women, compound men, recurve men, mixed team

Qualification story

Tatiana SEGINA (RUS), seeded eighth in the World Cup Rankings and seventh seed at the Final, was actually dropped out of the top-seven qualifiers when she lost the Wroclaw stage bronze medal match to Deepika KUMARI (IND).

The Russian thought her chances of a Lausanne appearance were over until fourth-ranked JOO Hyun Jung declined to participate due to Asian Games commitments. SEGINA took her place.

Germans Elena RICHTER and Lisa UNRUH – third and fourth seeded, respectively – had their best results ever on the Archery World Cup season: a stage gold in Shanghai for Elena, Medellin silver medal for Lisa and one team gold, also in Medellin, for each.

Aida ROMAN (MEX) is the only recurve woman who’s back from last year. She finished seventh at Paris 2013.

Defending champion

Reigning champion, Korean YUN Ok Hee has been off of the international archery circuit radar since Belek – she didn’t make the Korean squad this year – while Deepika KUMARI (IND), winner of the silver medal for the past three years, had a down season.

Still, there’s a former World Cup Final gold medallist on the roster: CHENG Ming (CHN) was champion at Istanbul 2010.

First round matches

Match one: Tatiana SEGINA (RUS) vs JUNG Dasomi (KOR)

Korea’s JUNG Dasomi – winner of the London Archery Classic, the test event for the last Olympics – qualified second by just being in the top three at the Medellin and Antalya stages.

Last month, JUNG claimed two silver medals – individual and women’s team – at the Second Asian Grand Prix in held in Chinese Taipei, and… she has been a consistent top-three finisher since 2011.

She’s shooting against SEGINA, who suffered to qualify. The Russian had good results in team competitions – and is the current European Champion – but still is not yet close to JUNG’s podium numbers.

Advantage: JUNG

Match two: Elena RICHTER (GER) versus CHENG Ming (CHN)

Elena RICHTER became the first German recurve woman to win an Archery World Cup stage, claiming gold in Shanghai to open this season. She then won gold with teammates UNRUH and WINTER in Medellin, and made the top-10 at the other stages.

RICHTER doesn’t have an easy first-round opponent: CHENG was Istanbul 2011 Champion and is an 2012 Olympic silver medallist…

Advantage: CHENG

Match three: Aida ROMAN (MEX) versus Lisa UNRUH (GER)

London individual silver medallist Aida ROMAN secured her second Archery World Cup Final berth by making the several podiums at the Shanghai and Wroclaw stages in both the individual and team competitions: one gold, two silvers and one individual bronze, in total.

Last year in Paris, ROMAN lost her first match.

In 2014, she starts against Lisa UNRUH – who recently became world field champ – silver medallist individually and team winner at the Medellin stage.

A face-off between the fourth and fifth seeds, this might be the closest match of the phase in this division…

Advantage: UNRUH

Match four: XU Jing (CHN) versus Nathalie DIELEN (SUI)

China’s XU Jing won the silver medal in the team event at London 2012. She then collected individual silver at the Belek 2013 World Archery Championships.

DIELEN’s a three-time Olympian. She’s also got absolutely nothing to lose, in front of a home crowd and as Switzerland’s host representative. It could happen!

Advantage: XU

Storyline in short

XU Jing, CHENG Ming and JUNG Dasomi have another large event on the near horizon: the Incheon Asian Games. The Korean team have been putting extra time in on the training field, and that’s no doubt true for the Chinese, too.

If two or more win their first round matches, then the recurve women’s World Cup Final title likely goes to Asia in 2014.

The thing is: it wouldn’t be the strangest thing if none won in the opening phase.

Predicting the final: UNRUH versus JUNG?

At the second stage of the year, JUNG beat UNRUH in straight sets. It secured the Korean the Medellin gold medal and relegated Lisa to silver.

Revenge?

JUNG’s got the medals, the higher scores and plenty of international experience – but the entire German team has been really, really good this year… especially the recurve women. Having a World Cup Final Champion would be a fitting finish to the team’s season.

The 2014 Archery World Cup Final is on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 September. Compound competition is on the first day and recurve on the second. Read news, buy tickets and follow World Archery’s coverage on Facebook and @worldarchery on Twitter.