World number one Kang Chae Young makes world championship final

Korean world number one Kang Chae Young has secured her place in the recurve women’s gold medal match at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch, where she will face Lei Chien-Ying of Chinese Taipei.

“In the semifinals, I told myself to just shoot nines and because of that, I was able to make good shots and ended up with a high score,” said Chae Young.

“I also kept reminding myself of times I’ve come in first and imagining that I can actually win in the finals. Right now, I’m just so happy and proud of myself. I’m incredibly happy.”

The 23-year-old is unbeaten internationally so far in 2019 after winning the Hyundai Archery World Cup stages in Medellin and Shanghai. 

She broke her own world record for the 72-arrow 70-metre ranking round, scoring 692/720 points, to seed first at these championships.

There was a wobble in the quarterfinals, where she needed an X in a shoot-off to beat Japan’s Tomomi Sugimoto, but otherwise she looked every part the favourite during the eliminations.



A 6-2 victory over Germany’s Michelle Kroppen and just four dropped points in 12 arrows in her semifinal sealed the gold medal match berth.

Her opponent this weekend in ’s-Hertogenbosch is world championship second seed Lei Chien-Ying.

“I think I will have a good performance on Sunday. It doesn’t matter who is there. You’re really competing against yourself. And I like to compete,” said the world number 22. “I got better and better today because I adjusted my tempo. I shot faster than normal.”

Lei closed her semifinal over Choi Misun with a pair of perfect 30-point sets and only dropped three set points through her four eliminations matches – all in her quarterfinal against Alexandra Mirca of Moldova.

Neither Kang nor Lei has medalled individually at the world championships before.

Choi will face Kroppen in the recurve women’s bronze medal match in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

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