Korean women win 13th World Champion crown

Korea’s Chang Hye Jin, Choi Misun and Kang Chae Young beat a host nation trio of Aida Roman, Mariana Avitia and Alejandra Valencia to the recurve women’s team title at the 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City.

“We’ve trained since last December for this and we’ve gained lots of experience on the World Cup circuit. We were prepared and we performed very well today because of that experience, and I’m really happy with how things went,” said Choi.

Korea shot two points less, 55-53, in the first set – but then averaged nearly 56 a set to win the next three and take the match, 6-2.

Kang, who alternated between first and third in the shooting order with Chang, said: “I’m extremely happy with the gold medal. At the beginning of the first set, I was nervous – the competition field was loud. I got more used to it as the match went on.”

Korea seeded first with a combined 2038-point score in qualification and beat Colombia, Georgia and China all in straight sets, 6-0, before meeting Mexico in the gold final.

The gold is the nation’s 13th World Archery Champion trophy in the division.

Aida, Mariana and Alejandra said the final brought mixed emotions.

“It was unbelievably emotional with the entire crowd behind us,” said Mariana. “Of course, we wanted to take first place, but this is an experience that will help us in the future.”

“It’s still an historic result and we’re very glad to give this world silver medal to Mexico.”

Alejandra added: “Personally, I’m not very satisfied. I’m going through a lot of feelings right now because I’m happy to have made it this far, but I also know it could have been better. I guess it’s still a learning curve.”

Lin Yu-Hsuan, Tan Ya-Ting and Lin Shih-Chia of Chinese Taipei took recurve women’s team bronze over China.

The 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships run 15-22 October in Mexico City, Mexico.