Japan’s teams make bronze finals; nation could win four medals in total

It’s a quietly incredible performance from a team that returned to Olympic relevance with a recurve women’s bronze medal at London 2012. That women’s team podium was their first at a Games since 1984.

Ren HAYAKAWA, Yuki HAYASHI and Kaori KAWANAKA – the latest iteration of the Japan women’s squad – will shoot against Russia for team bronze on Sunday. Their eliminations campaign included a shoot-off win over Mexico before being stumped by the hot Koreans, who didn’t lose a set after a precarious first-round match.

(Lowest seeds in the brackets, Colombia, took Korea to a shoot-off. The Koreans weren’t looking comfortable until they drilled three 10s in that decider.)

The Japanese men already picked up a team gold this season. They won Shanghai to open the season, and have a chance at a second stage medal in Antalya. Only a narrow shoot-off loss against Russia prevented another title opportunity.

With HAYAKAWA and Takahara FURUKAWA into the mixed team bronze medal match, Japan could walk away from this tournament with three team medals.

If FURUKAWA can convert his individual bronze match into a podium as well, then it could be four medals for one of the nations with high expectations for the Incheon 2014 Asian Games later this year. That match might not be the biggest challenge of FURUKAWA’s week, after he already turned the tables on OH Jin Hyek in their Olympic final re-run.

“We’ve only got one big tournament with the same team before the Asian Games,” explained the Japanese team manager. “This is a good end to our World Cup campaign this year, as we are not coming to Poland.”

Management has planned training camps for the group to “pump up their motivation”. The thing that the squad internally believes sets them apart from their competitors: teamwork. And it’s something that is quite obvious when you see how much fun Japanese archers have on the field. They are constantly smiling.

One of Japan’s main competitors at Incheon 2014 will be, of course, Korea. Modern archery is similar in Japan – but not identical – to their Asian neighbours: there are few recreational clubs but a sport program through the education system that gradually funnels talent into the national team.

The practice of Japanese traditional archery, known as Kyudo, is more popular as an activity than recurve archery, and there is some transfer at school level from the traditional martial art into Olympic recurve as talent identifiers look to pick up athletes with potential at a younger age.

Although the Koreans have branched out into compound archery in recent years, there’s no such shift in Japan – at least not internationally. “We have a handful of serious archers,” the Japanese team spokesperson confirmed. “Perhaps when we can field a full team you will see Japanese compound archers on the international stage, but not yet. “

“We are putting together a very strong platform for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, building a new archery centre and range.”

With the drive, allure and funding of a Games on the horizon, Japanese success on the World Cup circuit seems set to continue. The question is: just how many medals will we see head back on a plane to Tokyo over the coming years?

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