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Antalya 2019: Schedule, factsheet and preview

18 May 2019

Antalya, Turkey

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It’s only mid-May and we’re already halfway through the Hyundai Archery World Cup season.

Thanks to multisport events like the Universiade, European and Pan Am Games being scheduled in July and August, and having the worlds in the middle of the year, the bulk of this year‘s international circuit will be done before we hit the sixth month of the year.

By the end of next week’s tournament in Antalya, we could have as many as 11 archers qualified for the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup Final. (The host of which will be officially revealed on Monday.)

There are four automatic qualification spaces available at stage three with an opportunity to join Sara Lopez, So Chaewon, Mike Schloesser, Braden Gellenthien, Brady Ellison, Lee Woo Seok and Kang Chae Young in the final’s line-up.

Factsheet: Antalya 2019

Venues: Antalya Okculuk Tesisleri (qualification and eliminations) and Konyaalti Beach (finals)
Dates: 20-26 May 2019
Number of athletes: 383 from 54 countries (134 recurve men, 116 recurve women, 77 compound men, 56 compound women)
Where to watch: Live on World Archery’s Facebook and YouTube platforms (except USA and Indian sub-continent), Olympic Channel, NBC Olympic Channel (USA) on cable, Claro Sports (Latin America), CCTV (China), Sony (Indian sub-continent), Eleven (Chinese Taipei), Eurosport and more. Check local listings.

Schedule

Tuesday 21 May: Compound and recurve qualification
Wednesday 22 May: Early round individual eliminations
Thursday 23 May: Individual and team eliminations
Friday 24 May: Mixed team eliminations
Saturday 25 May: Compound finals
Sunday 26 May: Recurve finals

Defending stage winners

These are the results from the second stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

Individual

Recurve men: Lee Woo Seok, Korea (not returning)
Recurve women: Ksenia Perova, Russia
Compound men: Mike Schloesser, Netherlands
Compound women: Yesim Bostan, Turkey

Team

Recurve men: Korea (not returning)
Recurve women: Korea (not returning)
Recurve mixed: Japan
Compound men: Korea (not returning)
Compound women: Chinese Taipei
Compound mixed: France

5 things to know

1. Perova day. Reigning World Archery Champion Ksenia Perova is better at this venue. Her ability to win despite not shooting the scores of some of her peers has been documented – and nowhere more than Antalya has this been on display.

She came second at the stage in 2016 and has won it for the last two years in a row. Recurve Sunday this season falls exactly 365 days on from the last day of the event in 2018 – making it, officially, Perova day.

2. Almost. Two fourth-place finishes to start the season has Sjef van den Berg in a great place to qualify for his third career Hyundai Archery World Cup Final (after 2016 and 2017). For sure, he’d rather have podiumed at both of those events – but maybe he’s saving himself for something more important that’s just around the corner?

He, Brady Ellison, Lee Woo Seok and Kim Woojin were the final four recurve men in both Medellin and Shanghai. Lee and Kim aren’t shooting in Antalya. Will Sjef and Brady make it three medal matches in a row?

3. Five best. This is the first time this season we’ll have the top five ranked compound men in the world at the same event.

World number one Mike Schloesser took gold in Medellin to open the season, number two Braden Gellenthien was the winner in Shanghai. Third-ranked Stephan Hansen has spent the last couple of months shooting 3D events in the USA, and we have no idea what kind of form he’s in over 50 metres.

Reigning world champion Seb Peineau and Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion Kris Schaff, fourth and fifth in the world rankings, are also in Antalya.

4. Top-104 cuts. For the first time this season, the recurve men’s and recurve women’s categories have more athletes than the number that will advance past the qualification stage of the competition. Only the top 104 scorers over the ranking round make the cut.

(It’s 104 rather than 128 because the top eight seeds receive a bye into the third round. That leaves eight matches in the first round with one athlete and eight empty– their non-existent second-round opponents empty; 128 minus eight, minus two times eight equals 104.)

5. Taking a break. The Hyundai Archery World Cup will not visit Antalya in 2020, as the Turkish resort city will instead host the European Archery Championships. Hosts of events on the circuit in 2021 and onwards have not yet been announced.

Weather forecast

Next week in Antalya is shaping up to be a flat 30 degrees centigrade in the peak of the day and 18 at night. (That’s 86 and 64 in Fahrenheit.)

More important at this venue, though, is the wind – and that’s expected to get up to 18km/h on qualification day. Let’s hope it’s consistent. Because records have been shot in these conditions before.