Korean recurve teams slot into usual seeds after Antalya qualification: first

The Korean women took seeds one, two and three in the recurve ranking round in Antalya this morning. Not the most dramatic news in the archery world – it’s happened many times before – but nothing to be dismissed in the stiff Turkish heat.

“The wind direction was a little bit complicated,” said JUNG Dasomi, who ranked seventh. “There were arrows falling left and right… I just had to focus on my shooting.”

LEE Tuk Young scored 679 to take the top seed – three points off PARK Sung-Hyun’s famous record – CHANG Hye Jin was second and JOO Hyun Jung third.

For the Medellin stage last month, team Korea arrived a whole week before the competition. Here in Antalya, though – they flew in just a couple of days beforehand.

“It was the first time we had competed in South America,” JUNG added. “There is a huge time difference between Medellin and Korea and we needed some days to adjust to the jet lag.”

“Since the Olympic Games will be held in South America in 2016 it was a good opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the environment. We’ve competed many, many times in Antalya already – so we don’t worry too much about that here.”

That experience of the Turkish sunshine means the Korean team don’t worry to much about the considerable heat. Admittedly, it’s not the warmest it’s been here, but the athletes’ attitude to the warm weather is a good one: “We try to enjoy the sunshine. And the shooting conditions are very good.”

Top qualifier in Medellin and 2011 World Champion KIM Woojin claimed the recurve men’s first seed. KU Bonchan was second, and experience Japanese archer Takahara FURUKAWA third.

While archers from some of the colder countries struggled, team Korea did what they always do: cope, shoot 10s and top the ranking round.

See results from the third 2014 Archery World Cup stage in Antalya, which runs from 11-15 June. Check event news, and visit World Archery’s Facebook page and @worldarchery on Twitter for coverage.