Seoul Open withdrawn from 2019 Indoor Archery World Series calendar

World Archery and the Seoul Archery Association have come to an agreement to withdraw the Seoul Open from the Indoor World Series Calendar for this 2018-2019 season.

The sole reason for this regrettable decision is that, less than a month before the event, the number of entries was not high enough to justify a 500-level event and therefore the organiser was not in a position to guarantee the required prize money.

Athletes who had registered to the Seoul Open will be contacted directly with further information.

The accompanying planned youth tournament will continue to take place and all athletes will still be offered the opportunity to participate alongside this independent event, although the competition will have no official status from World Archery or the Korean Archery Association.

The 2019 Indoor Archery World Series was launched with the mission of creating strong individual open-entry tournaments to match with established events in Nimes and Las Vegas. Successful competitions have taken place in Luxembourg and Macau, and the upcoming stage in Rome has significantly exceeded its expected registration target.

It is expected that over 5000 people will compete across the circuit in 2019.

World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen said: “It is disappointing that Seoul will no longer be featured on this year’s indoor calendar and we are certain that the event would have been run in the tradition of excellence in Korean archery. However, given the low number of entries, the Seoul Archery Association took the difficult decision to withdraw.”

“After such a promising start to the new Indoor Archery World Series, World Archery will continue to invest in events that embrace the principles of sport tourism and open participation, and investing in this growing part of the sport.”