Colombia’s mixed team – top ranked – became the third compound number one seed to lose in the first match round, after Colombia’s compound women and the Korean compound men (to Colombia), at these world championships.
Slovenia was ranked 16th, but Toja Cerne and Dejan Sitar are no strangers to the finals field themselves.
But Colombia was not the only top seed to go out early. In fact, all four were out before the semifinals phase in Copenhagen
India, ranked fourth, went out to Italy in the first phase – and the USA lost to France in the second.
Host country Denmark, who beat Norway with the highest score on the field in the first pass at 154, was drawn with Russia 115-apiece at three ends shot. Russia drilled a 40 with their last arrows while Denmark put in three nines – and the Danes were out.
At the same time, the pair that beat the top seed, Slovenia, also lost to South Africa – and the entire bracket was blown open.
Korea, then the highest seeded mixed team left in the competition at five, beat South Africa in the first semifinal by three – while France edged Russia by a point in the second. Fast and frantic, the compound mixed team eliminations seemed finished before they even started.
Experienced archer from France Dominique Genet had some words of wisdom after walking off the semifinal show target.
“During our previous match with USA, our opponents shot three arrows on the same target,” he explained. “It gave us some advantage but we had to keep focused until the very end.”
“In this wind, you never know what can happen.”
Whether the wind or the world championship setting, there seemed no easy elimination path to take in the mixed team competition.
In the first phase of the recurve mixed team eliminations there were three shoot-offs, in the quarterfinals (the second round of competition), two.
Chinese Taipei – the second seeded pair – had a tiebreaker in both matches to begin the eliminations and top seeded Korea needed one to get past Mexico in the quarterfinals.
Three sets of 36 out of 40 points each put number one seeded individual recurve woman Lin Shih-Chia and Kuo Cheng-Wei, of Chinese Taipei, past Georgia and into the final in straight sets. Korea, though, went to another shoot-off in the semis.
China had the advantage heading into the fourth end.
Four-two up, the Chinese pair dropped two sevens and let Ki Bo Bae and Ku Bonchan draw level with four nines, forcing the deciding tiebreaker.
The Koreans, never athletes to pass up on an opportunity, put in a 10-9 to take the shoot-off by two points.
Ki Bo Bae will return to the gold medal match of the world championships mixed team competition for the second time in a row. At Belek 2013, the women’s Olympic Champion won the title with men’s Olympic Champion Oh Jin Hyek.
She said she liked shooting with Ku Bonchan: “It’s my first time shooting with him, but it’s been good and very helpful.”
Bonchan, laughed and pointed a big thumbs up as Bo Bae spoke.
“I was nervous during the second shoot-off but very happy to win,” she continued. “I don’t take the mixed team event as seriously as the rest of the competition, more like a performance. It’s fun.”
Perhaps especially fun with a shot at a repeat world mixed team title.
