Korea takes both compound team titles for 1st time

Compound teams from Korea took the Salt Lake City gold medal matches down to the last arrows, emerging victorious on both counts by putting in strong arrows when it counted most. It is the first time Korea has won both compound team titles at a stage on the Hyundai Archery World Cup circuit.

The women’s final, against the Netherlands, went to a shoot-off.

Korea had a three-point lead heading into the final end but the trio posted their lowest end of the match, 55 points, and the Dutch women caught up, tying the contest at 229 apiece.

“At the start we were shooting as usual, very strong, and were very concentrated on the match. Then we started to see the Netherlands shooting a bit better and we lost the advantage,” explained So Chaewon.

The Koreans had a single point lead two arrows into the tiebreaker and sat on 19 points, then posted a nine to close. The Netherlands’ Sanne de Laat needed a strong 10, within the inner X-ring, to steal the gold medal. She shot a 10, but it was only a linecutter – and the Korean 10, shot by So, took the match.

“I was the last one to shoot in the shoot-off and I misunderstood what the Netherlands shot,” said Choi Bomin. “I didn’t know whether it was a nine linecutter or a 10, so I thought I needed a 10.”

“I shot a nine but because So shot an X, it was enough for us to win the match.”

Italy ran Korea tight in the men’s final.

With a stronger start in the last end, and only trailing by one, a perfect three final shots would have guaranteed at least a shoot-off, but Simonelli dropped a nine, wide left.

It left the door open for Korea to take gold with a three 10s – and that’s exactly what Choi Yonghee, Hong Sung Ho and then, finally, Kim Jongho drilled.

“It was a very tight match. I have never experienced something like this before during the finals. So I think we did very well,” said Hong. “We’ve been trusting each other and it worked.”

“We were eliminated in Shanghai early, which was a disappointment; coming here and beating Italy gives us the confirmation that what we are doing is yielding results,” added Kim.

Italian team member Federico Pagnoni said he’d seen the Korean compounders working hard in Salt Lake. 

“They have also grown in experience. We know in Korea that there are a lot of archers, probably a big group of compounders, and they are really developing their level,” he added.

France beat El Salvador in the compound men’s team bronze medal match and the USA recovered a two-point deficit to take a 5-point win over Chinese Taipei in the compound women’s team third-fourth place final.

The third stage of the 2017 Hyundai Archery World Cup runs 20 to 25 June in Salt Lake City, USA.