New-look Korea team set new-look world record

There were murmurs that the Korean women wouldn’t be quite as scary individually without the Olympic Champion and athlete that broke back onto the international scene last year and won the World Cup Final.

Admittedly, we predicted just yesterday that they wouldn’t win gold in the individual competition – but, already, we are prepared to admit that we may have been wrong.

Korea won 1-2-3 seeds on the ranking round at Medellin, led by JOO Hyun Jung on 679. LEE Tuk Young, who hasn’t been to an international tournament since 2007, came in second with 678 and CHANG Hye Jin had 675.

Combined, their score of 2032 a new recurve women’s team world record.

Thanks to a strong performance over the second half, Mexico’s Aida ROMAN sneaked up the scoreboard and in behind the Korean’s tails. 

“The first 36 arrows helped me identify some technical errors I was making,” said ROMAN. “So I could correct them for the back stretch.”

To catch the Koreans during eliminations, Aida knows she’ll need to focus on her technique, prepare for the changing weather conditions – whether they be wind or heavy rain – and keep her arrows in the middle.

Top Colombian recurve qualifier Natalia SANCHEZ took the fifth seed. Over a tumultuous round, she had a high point of second during at one point in the first half.

See scores from qualification at the second stage of the 2014 Archery World Cup at Medellin 2014.