Rising star Peng making ground on Chinese Taipei teammates

Chinese Taipei’s up-and-coming star Peng Chia-Mao, who took individual recurve women’s gold at the World Archery Youth Championships in 2015, won her first senior event at the Asia Cup stage in Taipei City, pushing herself into the top-30 of the world ranking for the first time in her career.

“The wind was so strong, so I told myself to be relaxed and shoot with confidence,” said the 20-year-old, after beating Korean youth team member Lee Seunghui, 7-1, in the final.

Peng added a second gold in the recurve women’s team event, and faced her toughest competition of the individual competition when she faced Tan Ya-Ting in the semifinals. Close from the very start of the contest, and shot under threat of the storms that tested the event from the beginning, Peng shot a 10 in a tiebreaker to beat her experienced teammate’s nine.

“The older members of our team have given me many pieces of advice and always encourage me a lot. I feel good in this team. I’ve learned a lot from Tan and Le [Chien-Ying] and they have helped me become a better archer,” said Peng.

Ranked 25th in the world following the result and the release of the new World Archery Ranking list on Monday 10 July, Peng – for whom 2017 is her first year on the international senior team – still trails her three teammates in Tan, Lin Shih-Chia and Le, who all remained in the top 10.

Chinese Taipei also won gold medals in the compound men’s team, compound women’s team and recurve mixed team competitions.

Asian Games Champion Esmaeil Ebadi took gold in the compound men’s event and 15-year-old Divya Dhayal, of India, converted a top seeding after compound women’s qualification into a top-spot finish on the individual and compound mixed team podiums after matchplay.

Fifteen-year-old Korean Ha Hyunhoo won the recurve men’s event after upsetting the top-seeded host-nation archer Wei Chun-Heng in the semis.

Pictures and quotes courtesy Chinese Taipei Archery Association and Tetsu Lee. The Taipei City stage of the 2017 Asia Cup ran 4-9 July.