Korea dominates the women’s ranking round

The women’s Olympic archery started this afternoon with the ranking round. Korea dominated the field with a first-place finish as a team and the best two individual archers.   The London Olympic Games started today with the archery ranking rounds. The men took the field in the morning, followed by the women in the afternoon. Archers shot a 70m Round (72 arrows) in good weather conditions.   The women’s competition was much more open than the men’s. Three archers finished with the same score of 371. Korea’s KI Bo Bae was the best of the first half (338 points) and was ranked no 1 after 72 arrows. Her teammate LEE Sung Jin, already an Olympic champion (team, 2004), ended up in 2nd place. The remaining Korean archer CHOI Hyeonju scored only 321 points in the first half to finish in 21st place. The 3rd rank went to Chinese Taipei’s TAN Ya-Ting, who was the silver medallist of the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010. The 18-year-old was followed by the five-time Olympian Khatuna LORIG (USA). Another archer from the Chinese Taipei, LIN Chia-En, was 5th with 667 points. Miki KANIE (JPN), Carina CHRISTIANSEN (DEN) and the No. 1 of the World Ranking Deepika KUMARI (IND) completed the top 8. The Mexican archers displayed solid shooting and were very close in scores, with Mariana AVITIA 10th, Aida ROMAN 11th, and Alejandra VALENCIA 13th. The current world indoor champion Natalia VALEEVA (ITA) was 24th with 650 points, while the reigning world (outdoor) champion Denisse VAN LAMOEN from Chile shot 645 points to place 31st.   The team ranking saw four teams finish within 20 points. As in the men’s category, Korea was the best team on the field with a first-place finish. However the other countries were not far behind. The USA stood in 2nd place with 1979 points, ahead of the Chinese Taipei (1976) and Mexico (1974). These first four countries have secured byes into the team quarterfinals.   Click here to view the complete results of the ranking round. The women’s team finals with take place on Sunday 29 July and the individual finals on 3 August at Lord’s Cricket Ground. Before that, don’t forget to follow the men’s team eliminations and medal finals tomorrow!   World Archery Communication