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Rosario 2017: 10 things to know about the World Archery Youth Championships

01 octobre 2017

Rosario (ARG)

Vrai nom:

Every two years the World Archery Youth Championships award cadet and junior world titles to some of the globe’s most promising young archers. This 2017 edition of the event is taking place on 2-8 October in Rosario, a major city in Argentina’s Santa Fe province and about a four-hour drive from Buenos Aires.

Rosario also acts as the primary qualifier for the upcoming Youth Olympic Games, one year away in Argentina, and will award a total of 32 quota places.

Here’s 10 things you need to know before competition begins in Rosario.

1. The numbers

A total of 532 athletes from 65 nations registered to compete in Rosario; 335 of those junior and 197 in the cadet categories.

2. Schedule

2 October: Official practice (afternoon only)

3 October: Qualification, individual eliminations

4 October: Individual eliminations, team eliminations

5 October: Mixed team eliminations, individual eliminations

6 October: Youth Olympic Games quota tournament

7 October: Compound finals

8 October: Recurve finals

3. Youth Olympic qualifying

The archery competition at the next Youth Olympic Games, due to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2018 includes recurve cadet athletes born between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2003. Eligible athletes compete in a primary qualifying tournament during the worlds in Rosario.

Each nation with an athlete in the top 16 wins a quota place to the Games (up to a maximum of one).

A secondary tournament then decides any left over spaces, created when a nation has more than one athlete finishing in the top 16, until all 16 available spots in each of the boys’ and girls’ divisions are awarded.

4. Nanjing double gold

Li Jiaman, the young Chinese archer who won the girls’ gold medal and mixed team title at her home Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, competes at her first international event since 2014 in Rosario.

Now 20 years of age and a junior, Li’s return to the competition field is worth watching.

5. 2015 Champions

Three of the eight individual winners from the Yankton 2015 World Archery Youth Championships return in 2017. All four junior champions aged out.

Cadets
- MARCUS D’ALMEIDA, Brazil (Competing, now junior)
- HYEONG YEAJIN, Korea (Not competing)
- VIKTOR OROSZ, Hungary (Competing, now junior)
- FATIMAH ALMASHHADANI (Competing, now junior)
Juniors
- MIN BYEONGYEON, Korea (Not competing, now senior)
- PENG CHIA-MAO, Chinese Taipei (Not competing, now senior)
- STEPHAN HANSEN, Denmark (Not competing, now senior)
- TANJA JENSEN, Denmark (Not competing, now senior)

6. Weather report

After a weekend storm that caused unofficial practice to be cancelled on 1 October, most of the tournament will enjoy sunshine according to weather forecasts. Rain might return towards the end of the finals.

7. Three bold predictions

Orosz claims fourth world title.

The 19-year-old Hungarian compound archer has been to three youth worlds (two indoor, one outdoor) and walked away with individual gold at each. Viktor Orosz’ title in 2015 was in the cadet category, but he’s an odds on favourite to contest the junior crown in Argentina.

Iran takes at least one team gong.

Fielding squads in the compound cadet women and men’s competitions, Iran’s recent form across the event calendar bodes well for both trios. Iran’s senior men are the reigning World Archery Champion team and the nation picked up five medals at the world paras in Beijing. With a reported over 20,000 archers across the country, Iran’s competitive ability is on the rise across the board.

USA wins seventh straight cadet team title.

The compound cadet women from the United States have won all six team competitions since the medal was first awarded in Merida in 2006. Breanna Theodore returns to defend the title from Yankton, joined by Sachiko Keane and Savannah Vanderwier.

8. Rio Olympics

An incredible six athletes in Rosario were also Olympians at Rio 2016:

Boris Balaz, Marcus D’Almeida, Mete Gazoz, Ricardo Soto, Yasemin Anagoz and Lucilla Boari all competed at the Games in Brazil.

Soto, from Chile, was the youngest archer in Rio (at 16) and the highest finisher of the group, coming ninth overall. He beat Anton Prilepov (10 to 10 in a shoot-off) and Bernardo Oliveira, before losing to the eventual fourth placed archer, Sjef van den Berg, in a tiebreaker.

9. Finals venue

The Monumento Nacional a la Bandera, built near the shore of the Parana River, will host the finals in Rosario in the evening. The venue was already used for an archery tournament when it held medal matches at the Pan American Championships in 2014.