Perova upsets Olympic Champion Chang in Mexico final

Ksenia Perova, 28, beat Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Chang Hye Jin, 30, in a five-set recurve women’s gold medal match at the 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City, taking her second international victory and first individual title at the world championships.

“I’ve been in archery for 18 years and it’s the first individual world championships I've won,” said Perova. “I was really excited and happy, and I just thanked my coach.”

“Tonight there’ll probably be a party and a cake, and back home I’m going to celebrate with my parents and my daughter.”

A final between the numbers one and three ranked archers in the world, it looked one-sided at the start. The Olympic Champion was posting wide arrows and didn’t look comfortable.

With a chance to win it in the fourth set, Perova couldn’t come through – and somehow the match was tied at 4-4.

As tension grew and the wind blew stronger, Chang scored only 21 points in the fifth and final set, leaving her opponent needing just a five to clinch the match. Perova did not miss the second opportunity and took gold.

“At the end of the last set, I didn't think about winning but just concentrated on that last arrow, and knew I would win,” said Perova.

This is Perova's fourth major international medal in three years, after she was 2015 World Archery Champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist with the Russian team, and individual runner-up at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in 2017.

Tan Ya-Ting, a team bronze medallist at the last Games with the Chinese Taipei recurve women’s squad, defeated Mackenzie Brown – at the latter’s first World Archery Championships – in four sets, 7-1, and took bronze.

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

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