Kang Chae Young top Korean, top qualifier with 684

Korean recurve woman Kang Chae Young, 21, scored 684 out of a possible 720 points, three off the world record, to seed first at the 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City. She had one point more than teammate and Olympic Champion Chang Hye Jin and four more than Chinese Taipei’s Tan Ya-Ting.

“It’s the World Championships and I was able to shoot a good score, so I’m happy,” said Kang. “At the start of the qualifications, I wasn’t nervous but I started to get more and more nervous. I just tried to stay focused until the end.”

“I’m not going to get greedy. If I just focus on what I’m doing, I think I’ll have a good result [at these championships].”

The top Korean pair, Kang and Chang, were tight until the last arrows.

Nurturing a two-point lead heading into the last end, Kang shot 57 points for her final six shots, Chang 58, to take the top seed and record the best international ranking round score of her career.

“There was less wind than at other competitions and rather than my score, I was focused on my technique until the end,” she said.

It was Tan Ya-Ting that led for much of the round.

Having scored 344/360 at the halfway point, she was on world record (687) pace, but dropped her average over the following 24 arrows before closing strong to come third.

“Third place is okay but I thought I could finish better. I didn’t think about the record, I was just shooting my arrows,” said Tan.

Third Korean Choi Misun, the world record holder, finished fourth with 671 points. Zhang Dan of China, Kristine Esebua of Georgia, Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-Hsuan and Lisa Unruh rounded out the top eight, who all receive a bye to the third round.

“It was really difficult for me today and I don’t know why – my technique was okay but I was struggling some times and had to let down. At the end it's a good result,” said Germany’s Olympic silver medallist Unruh.

Korea qualified as the top team, followed by Chinese Taipei and hosts Mexico in third. 

The 2017 World Archery Championships run 15-22 October in Mexico City, Mexico

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