Russian women top recurve and compound open ranking rounds at para worlds

Russian archers Stepanida Artakhinova and Svetlana Barantseva finished top over the compound and recurve women’s open ranking rounds at the 2019 World Archery Para Championships in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, scoring 693 and 625 points, respectively.

Seven-time para world medallist Artakhinova finished ahead of Great Britain’s Jodie Grinham (686) and Jessica Stretton (684).

Artakhinova, Tatiana Andrievskaia and Anastasia Dzhioeva improved their own world record for team qualification with a combined score of 2037 out of a possible 2160 points.

“We were surprised to see we beat the world record,” said Tatiana. “We were just shooting, step by step. However, at home, we’ve achieved even better results than the one from today. But we are happy.”

Second- and third-ranked Great Britain and Italy were also above the previous world-best mark.

Recurve women’s leader Barantseva jumped up from ninth with 300 points for the first 36 arrows to first for the full round, after adding 325 for the back half.

“I’m really happy to finish in the top because I felt all my arrows were shot well today,” she said.

Paralympic Champion Zahra Nemati followed in second with 623 and Italy’s Elisabetta Mijno third with 621. Mijno was in the lead heading into the last end.

Gao Fangxia, Lin Dandan and Wu Chunyan of China broke the recurve women’s open team qualification record by 32 points.

“We didn’t even think about breaking the record here. All we were caring was about giving our best to qualify as high as possible,” said Gao. “This tournament is important because it will give places to the Paralympic Games and we all want to be there, so it’s a good start but nothing is granted yet. We still have to earn it.”

Iran claimed the recurve mixed team ranking round world record and China the compound mixed team record.

They brought the total number of world records broken on the first day of these world championships to seven. Other record-setters included the USA compound men’s open team, Belgian visually impaired athlete Ruben Vanhollebeke and Kim Min Su of Korea in the recurve event.

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June and World Archery Para Championships on 3-9 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.