Paul Marton “overwhelmed” by home Asia Cup victory

Pictures courtesy Rayner Suganob.

The Philippines’ Paul Marton De La Cruz won compound men’s gold at the second stage of the 2018 Asia Cup in his home city of Manila, shooting a 10 to beat Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hsiang-Hsuan in a single-arrow shoot-off to decide the final.

“Winning a gold medal in my own country is really overwhelming, and at first I was so nervous because the expectation of people here is so high,” said Paul Marton.

Four years removed from his bronze medal at the Asian Games in Incheon, which was his first international podium, the 31-year-old is looking to repeat or better that breakthrough performance at the next edition in Jakarta in August 2018.

“I’m shooting more arrows and doing additional exercise; my focus now in training is aiming,” he explained – adding that he’s already secured his spot in the Philippines’ team for the Games.

Paul Marton qualified top in Manila with 704 out of a possible 720 points for the 72-arrow 50-metre ranking round. 

He averaged over 145 points a match through his eliminations but went to a tiebreaker with Chen after both scored 143 for their 15 arrows in the final.

The favourite put a high 10 in first – and then Chen followed with a wide nine.

Chinese Taipei did take individual titles in the compound women’s competition, courtesy Chen Yi-Hsuan, and the recurve women’s event, with Lo Hsiao-Yuan’s win over Korean youth archer Kang Subin.

Kim Kanghyun, another young Korean archer, beat Chinese Taipei’s Tang Chih-Chun to the recurve men’s gold medal.

The recurve men’s bronze medal match took a strange turn when Korea’s Kim Junghun failed to shoot his last arrow of the fifth set, leaving Otgonbold Baatarkhuyag needing just a hit with his last shot to take the last spot on the poidum.

Baatarkhuyag shot a nine.

The second stage of the 2018 Asia Cup took place on 6-11 April in Manila, Philippines.

People
Competitions