Korean quartet consistent but let Ya Ting jump ahead

The recurve women’s competition in Antalya saw Korea’s four-woman squad dance around the top six throughout the length of the ranking round. In the mix with them: USA Archery’s Khatuna LORIG and TAN Ya Ting from Chinese Taipei. 

It looked to be top seed sown up for CHANG Hye Jin but she had a poor finish, putting too many in the nine and even a seven during her last end. 

It left the door open for Ya Ting to leapfrog the entire Korean contingent into the top spot on the leaderboard. A single point was all the difference over 72 arrows, but a single point was all that was necessary. 

Khatuna’s 669 total was just four points less than Ya Ting’s leading score. 

That put her five seeds back, drawn with fourth – Olympic Champion KI Bo Bae – and fifth – triple gold medallist in Shanghai, KANG Chae Young – on score but with fewer arrows in the 10, in sixth. CHOI Misun ended the round in third. 

Khatuna hadn’t known she was so in the mix during the round. 

The five-time veteran of Olympic Games has embraced a role as the experienced senior on a young team, with LaNola PRITCHARD and Ariel GIBILARO preparing to join her at the worlds later in 2015. 

“We have a great energy and we work well together in training,” Khatuna said of her teammates.

“I do feel older than them but I’m happy that I have the experience and that the girls can ask anything and I can help them out. Working hard together for the world champs, and doing well so far, we just need to keep our mindset positive and good things will come.” 

The USA team qualified a strong fifth behind consistent Korea, Ya Ting’s Chinese Taipei, Japan and China. 

London 2012 Olympic silver medallist from Mexico Aida ROMAN had a strong back half to jump up into the seventh seed by the end of the round, while Deepika KUMARI landed just out of the top-eight bye cut in ninth.

Deepika, from India, won silver at the Archery World Cup Final in 2011, 2012 and 2013. 

Read more about Antalya 2015.