The Hyundai Archery World Cup returns in 2019 with a trip back to a stunning metropolitan city in the heart of Latin America that last hosted a stage of the international archery circuit in the lead up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Medellin previously owned a stop on the tour in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 – and replaces Salt Lake City, USA as the holder of the Americas leg this time around.
As of writing, the host of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final has not been announced. (Don’t worry, that’s imminent.) But we do know the circuit will visit its customary stations in Shanghai and Antalya before the Hyundai World Archery Championships in June, and then Berlin after that.
For the second year in a row, the winner of each stage books an automatic ticket to the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final. And with three events over the next five weeks, we could have almost half the line-up settled before the midway point in the year.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Stage one, in Medellin, starts on Monday.
Factsheet: MEDELLIN 2019
- Venue: Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot, Medellin, Colombia
- Dates: 22-28 April 2019
- Number of athletes: 205 from 36 countries (78 recurve men, 56 recurve women, 38 compound men, 33 compound women)
- Where to watch: Live on World Archery’s Facebook and YouTube platforms (except USA and Indian subcontinent), Olympic Channel, NBC Olympic Channel (USA), Claro Sports (Latin America), CCTV (China), Sony (Indian sub-continent), Eleven (Chinese Taipei), Eurosport and more. Check local listings.
Schedule
- Tuesday 23 April: Compound and recurve qualification
- Wednesday 24 April: Early round individual eliminations
- Thursday 25 April: Individual and team eliminations
- Friday 26 April: Mixed team eliminations
- Saturday 27 April: Compound finals
- Sunday 28 April: Recurve finals
Defending stage winners
These are the results from the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup stage held in Salt Lake City, USA, which Medellin replaces in 2019. Results of the 2016 Archery World Cup stage in Medellin are also available.
Individual
- Recurve men: Mauro Nespoli, Italy
- Recurve women: Deepika Kumari, India
- Compound men: Stephan Hansen, Denmark (not returning)
- Compound women: Sara Lopez, Colombia
Team
- Recurve men: Netherlands
- Recurve women: Chinese Taipei (not returning)
- Recurve mixed: USA
- Compound men: USA
- Compound women: Colombia
- Compound mixed: France
5 things to know
1. Is this the year of Sara Lopez (again)? Although she was unbeaten in 2018, Lopez didn’t shoot enough events to maintain her spot at the top of the compound women’s world ranking. She’s got a full calendar for 2019 – only planning to miss Shanghai – and opens her year on familiar soil at home in Colombia.
It’s the start of a campaign for a record fifth Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion crown. (She won the circuit in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.) But we all know what she really wants this year… a world title.
2. Raising the game. Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen the recurve women’s world record raised to 691 points; Mete Gazoz shoot the highest non-Olympic competition recurve qualification score of 698 – and that was just days after Sjef van den Berg became the first European archer to break the 690 barrier.
Who’ll set the level at the first world tournament of the 2019 season?
3. Three years on, four winners return. Our winners list above lists the archers that took victories at the Americas leg of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Salt Lake City last year. But three years ago, we were in Medellin – and Brady Ellison, Choi Misun, Sergio Pagni and Sara Lopez took individual honours. All four are back to shoot in Colombia once again.
4. Claro Sports onboard in Latin America. The entire Hyundai Archery World Cup season will be carried by Claro Sports on television across Latin America. Tune in if you’re based in the host-country of Colombia – or in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay or Venezuela.
5. Lima 2019 Pan American Games. The final quota place assignments for the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima were announced in early April. With teams like Trinidad and Tobago, Peru and Guatemala among those both qualified and attending Medellin, it’ll be a good indicator of whether we’ll have any surprise performers come August.
Weather forecast
It’s rainy season in Colombia and the opening stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin is shaping up to be damp. Fortunately, the rain tends to be at its worst in the evenings and at night – and since the majority of the schedule is earlier in the day (it gets dark early), hopefully archers won’t be getting too wet.
The city itself sits about 1500 metres above sea level. The thinner air makes a difference to arrow flight. It won’t be a surprise to see arrows landing high during the first few ends of practice.
Forecast via Accuweather on 18 April.
The first stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup takes place in Medellin, Colombia on 22-28 April.
