Olympic Champion shoots 592 points for first indoor international ranking round

Under the bright lights of a shooting hall that only Thailand could provide, Olympic Champion OH Jin Hyek shot his first international indoor ranking round. He walked away with 592 out of a possible 600 points.

Representing Hyundai Steel, the professional team that employs OH’s expertise in the highly competitive Korean national archery scene, he took a comfortable second seed, one point ahead of defending Indoor Archery World Cup Champion Rick VAN DER VEN.

Dutch archer Rick, who was fourth-place finisher at the London Olympics that OH won, scored the same as PARK Jae Young – Korea – and was only a point ahead of the USA’s Brady ELLISON.

But the score that stood out: BYEONGYEON Min’s 597.

Both he and OH scored 297 for their first 30 arrows. In the second half, Jin Hyek dropped off – if it can be called that – for a 295, while Min managed a perfect 300.

The 18-metre ranking round score tied Michele FRANGILLI’s world record setting performance from 2001 in Nimes, France. It’s a record that’s stood for 13 years – and was tied the first time the Korean men went indoors.

The only person to put more points on the board than Min in Bangkok was reigning Vegas Shoot and World Champion Mike SCHLOESSER. He was four points up on Dutch compatriot Peter ELZINGA and recently-crowned outdoor Archery World Cup Champion Bridger DEATON – from the USA – on 598 points in compound men’s qualification.

Braden GELLENTHIEN and Reo WILDE, also both States archers, came in fifth and seventh respectively. Braden won the series’ first stage in Marrakesh and Reo has not yet been beaten at the second stage of the circuit – although it was previously held in Singapore.

A 587 from the USA’s Erika JONES topped the compound women’s ranking round. She was closely followed by Slovenian World Field Champion Toja CERNE – 586 – and Natalia AVDEEVA, from Russia, on 584. All three competed at the Lausanne 2014 Archery World Cup Final.

JEON Sungeun led the recurve women’s 60-arrow qualification on 589. She had the same score as KIM Yu Mi and SIM Ye Ji – but had shot more 10s. Korea had the top five seeds.

See results, news and photos from the Bangkok 2014 Indoor Archery World Cup stage.