Preview: Is there anyone to thwart Lim Sihyeon’s dominant season?

For sure there will be a new World Cup Champion in the recurve women’s category at the Tlaxcala 2024 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final, as none of the eight qualifiers has ever collected the season-ending trophy.

Korea’s Lim Sihyeon is the clear favourite after dominating the entire season head and shoulders, losing just one match out of the 20 she has played on the international scene.

The reigning Asian Games Champion and Asian Championships runner-up won the first two World Cup stages – Shanghai in April and Yecheon in May – before becoming a three-time Olympic gold medallist at Paris 2024 this summer.

The 21-year-old finished third for her World Cup Final debut last year in Hermosillo, where Alejandra Valencia podiumed for the first time in seven participations, as the runner-up to Kang Chae Young, who did not make the Korean team in 2024, and so will not defend her title.

The 29-year-old Mexican is the second most capped recurve woman at World Cup Finals, just behind Deepika Kumari, who makes her ninth appearance this year in Mexico. The 30-year-old medalled five times – four silvers and one bronze – but she has never won the event.

All five other qualifiers, Jeon Hunyoung, Li Jiaman, Yang Xiaolei, Sonoda Waka and Angela Ruiz, are debutants entering Tlaxcala.

Finals for the recurve women in Tlaxcala start at 14h00 (local) on Sunday 20 October. Live stream on archery+.

Line-up

The top two seeds are listed in bold and will be placed at opposite ends of the bracket. A match draw will determine the positions of the other archers.

• Lim Sihyeon, Korea (two-time stage winner, Olympic wildcard, world number one)
• Jeon Hunyoung, Korea
• Deepika Kumari, India
• Li Jiaman, China
• Alejandra Valencia, Mexico
• Yang Xiaolei, China (stage winner)
• Sonoda Waka, Japan
• Angela Ruiz, Mexico (host country)

Bold prediction

Who else but Lim Sihyeon.

There are no superlatives left to describe the performances of the 21-year-old Korean.

Since her successful debut on the world scene less than a year and a half ago, at the second stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai in May 2023, she has (almost) won everything: the season’s third stage in Medellin in June and the Asian Games in October, and then in 2024, Shanghai in April, Yecheon in May and all three Olympic events at the Paris 2024.

Lim has an impressive run of just one defeat – to Ariana Zairi in Antalya last June – in 20 international matches since she lost in the gold medal match to former teammate Choi Misun at the Bangkok 2023 Asian Archery Championships in November. 

With an average per arrow close to 9.5, and unbeaten in three shoot-offs this season, she really is to be the woman to beat as the season draws to a close, no doubt.