Round-up: Competition news from opening stage of World Cup in Medellin

The first stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup took place in Medellin, Colombia on 22-28 April. It was the first time in three years a stage of the international archery circuit had visited the city after it previously held a stop in 2013-2016.

For the second year in a row, the winners of each stage of the tour book themselves an automatic ticket to the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Top qualifiers

• Recurve men: Brady Ellison, USA – 692
• Recurve women: Kang Chae Young, Korea – 670
• Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands – 713
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia – 713

Qualification saw Brady Ellison take the top recurve men’s seed on 10-count, after a three-way tie between the US archer, Kim Woojin and Lee Seungyun on 692 points. Kang Chae Young was the best recurve woman by a margin.

Sara Lopez and Mike Schloesser both shot 713 out of the possible 720 points for the 72-arrow 50-metre compound ranking round. Lopez led the Colombian women and mixed team to world records; Mike took his first pole position of the new season.

Meanwhile, Oscar Ticas shed light on his doping ban ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and 2013 World Archery Champion Lee Seungyun spoke about his return to the Korean team.

During the week, top seed Mike Schloesser received a national award for outstanding achievements as part of the Netherlands’ King’s Day.

Eliminations ran until Friday in Medellin, with preview articles headlining the compound women’s final between Sara Lopez and Jody Vermeulen, and the recurve men’s gold medal clash between Brady Ellison and Lee Seungyun as the best of the weekend.

Winners

• Recurve men: Brady Ellison, USA
• Recurve women: Kang Chae Young, Korea
• Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands
• Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia

Sara Lopez won her 10th career Hyundai Archery World Cup stage with a – somewhat fortunate – tiebreak victory, plus added a team gold with Colombia and Mike Schloesser was almost perfect in his final. He shot 149 points to beat Braden Gellenthien.

Korea won four out of five gold medals on recurve day in Medellin and Kang Chae Young booked a ticket to the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.

Brady Ellison prevented the sweep with a masterful performance in the recurve men’s title match.

Medal count

• ​Korea: 4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
• USA: 2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze
• Colombia: 2 gold, 1 bronze
• Netherlands: 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze
• Italy: 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
• France: 3 silver, 2 bronze
• Australia: 1 silver
• Japan: 1 bronze
• China: 1 bronze

Despite only finishing third in the individual competition, Kim Woojin won the Longines Prize for Precision, now awarded on the percentage of 10s shot at each stage, in Medellin.

Mike Schloesser was named top shot of the Medellin event in our new, entirely subjective cross-category ranking.

The first stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup was held on 22-28 April in Medellin, Colombia. The circuit now moves to Shanghai, China for stage two, which starts on 6 May.