Aquece Rio test event: Woojin, Crispin lead men’s ranking

The winner of the worlds in 2011 and 2015, Korea’s Woojin Kim, was in a league of his own during qualifying at the Aquece Rio International Archery Challenge.

Woojin scored 347 for the first 36 arrows and 343 for the second, both top of the field.

His 690 total was just nine shy of the world record set by Korean teammate Im Dong Hyun during the ranking round at the London 2012 Olympics, and five better than his closest challenger at the test event for the next Games in Rio.

Unfortunately, the Korean recurve men, Woojin with Olympic Chamion Oh Jin Hyek and Ku Bonchan, ranked 18th and missed the 16-team cut.

Jin Hyek did not complete his scorecard correctly for the second 36 arrows and lost the points, dropping to the last individual seed and the Korean team out of the competition.

On the far left of the line, Crispin Duenas shot a new Canadian record and his personal best in competition to take the second seed at the event. He was five points behind Woojin – on 685 – and four ahead of third qualifier Furukawa Takaharu of Japan.

Germany’s Florian Kahllund seeded fourth and Ku Bonchan fifth.

“I came in with a plan and I executed the plan and it worked really, really well this time,” said Crispin. “We knew it was solid, but we had to give time for my body to get used to it – and today it worked!”

Crispin wouldn’t reveal the intricacies of his winning approach, saying it was about “shooting 10s” and having the confidence to shoot the same way in competition as in practice.

“The fruits of my labour were shown with a new Canadian record, so I’m really, really happy with that.”

The Canadian Olympian, one man in a 60-athlete field, said that though he’d have his moment of happiness, a good ranking was no guarantee of success at the tournament as there were no easy matches at international events.

“I’ve got to make sure that I’m really on my game because the person who’s going to be shooting against me in my first match is going to be really out and gunning to get me,” Crispin said.

“I’ve got to buckle down, focus and do exactly what I did today, but do it against someone else.”

Crispin’s second-ranked score, added to top-half performances from Hamilton Nguyen (25) and Jay Lyon (32) put the Canadian team in second, too.

India ranked first, two points ahead on 1996, and Chinese Taipei third.

The Brazilian team made the cut in 16th. The host nation would not have continued in the competition if the Korean team had not been pushed out of the top 16.