Jensen tops compound women’s ranking round with competition-best 708

Denmark’s Tanja Jensen shot a new competition best of 708 points over the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round to lead all compound women at the 2019 World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

It is her second top seeding of this season after scoring 703 to rank fist at the second stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai.

“I’m very happy because it’s always been a challenge for me to shoot 72 arrows without making big mistakes, so I’m glad I was able to finish well and not ruin it for myself,” said Tanja, who shot two balanced halves of 354 points.

After the first 36 arrows, the Dane sat in fourth behind So Chaewon, Alejandra Usquiano and Sara Lopez – but all four had scored the same, they had just been ranked on 10 or X count.

Heading into the last end of the round, there was only a point between Tanja and Chaewon. Both shot a 58, leaving the Danish archer in front.

“I knew going into the last end we were really close, so I just wanted to go out there and shoot strong shots and that’s all I could have asked for,” added Tanja.

“I missed two in the last end but it’s because they were really strong shots, but I rather have that than make really bad shots.”

Chaewon, Usquiano, Toja Ellison, Lopez, Sunniva Lislevand, Muskan Kirar and Sarah Prieels completed the compound women’s top eight.

Chaewon’s 707 combined with the 714 shot by top-seeded male teammate Kim Jongho set a new mixed team qualification world record of 1421 points. It was a six-point improvement on Colombia’s previous mark.

“I didn’t even think about the mixed team record, so it was a surprise,” said Chaewon. “The weather was nice so that probably helped. This is a big international event, so it’s quite a nice encouragement for us.”

Colombia topped the compound women’s team ranking round, followed by Korea and India. Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA and Russia also received top-eight byes in the team event.

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