Song Yun Soo, Kim Jongho defend compound titles at Universiade

Pictures courtesy Tetsu Lee and Taipei 2017. 

Korean archers Song Yun Soo and Kim Jongho successfully defended their two-year-old Universiade compound champion titles in the archery competitions in Taipei City. The Korean compound women’s team also took gold, as did Kim and So Chaewon in the mixed team event.

“We did very well because I trusted myself and my teammates,” said Chaewon, who took individual bronze, too. “Plus, the weather is so much better than yesterday!”

The competition had suffered delays due to storms in the region.

Song and Kim arrived in Taipei as defending champions at the Universiade, after both collected individual gold medals at the 2015 edition on home soil in Gwangju. 

Kim, who seeded first after the ranking round in Taipei, went untested through the brackets until the quarterfinals, when he needed a 147-point match to beat Korean teammate Hong Sung Ho by one.

He then survived a shoot-off with Mario Vavro in the semis by shooting a better 10, and dispatched 2015 Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion (and winner of the most recent stage of the international tour in Berlin, Germany) Demir Elmaagacli in the final, 146-145.

Song, ranked fourth, knocked out top seed So – who shot a miss – in the semifinals and beat Chinese Taipei host’s Chen Yi-Hsuan to gold, 146-143.

Kim and So beat Ukraine, Russia, Chinese Taipei and Turkey in the mixed team event.

Reigning individual World Archery Champion Kim Yunhee was the third member of the Korean compound women’s team.

“Our goal is always to win the gold medal, and I think we did well,” said Yunhee after she, Song and So beat Russia in the compound women’s team final. “We are very satisfied with our performance.” 

Russia won compound men’s team gold.

The archery competitions at the 2017 Universiade take place 19-24 August in Taipei City.