Beginners’ guide to the ’s-Hertogenbosch 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships

The second of this doubleheader of world championships in the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch is a big one. This year’s Hyundai World Archery Championships marks the 50th edition of the event, which started back in 1931.

It’s also set to be the largest – with around 600 athletes taking to the competition field. And not just with their sights set on world titles but also on those coveted quota places for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Factsheet: Hyundai World Archery Championships

• Venues: The Dukes (qualification and elimination) and Parade (finals)
• Dates: 10-16 June
• Number of athletes: 590 from 88 countries (200 recurve men, 153 recurve women, 139 compound men, 98 compound women)
• Medals: 10 (four individual, six team)

Schedule

• Monday 10 June: Qualification and eliminations
• Tuesday 11 June: Qualification and eliminations
• Wednesday 12 June: Eliminations
• Thursday 13 June: Eliminations
• Friday 14 June: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games secondary qualification tournament
• Saturday 15 June: Compound finals
• Sunday 16 June: Recurve finals 

reigning World Champions

These are the results from the 2017 Hyundai World Archery Championships in Mexico City.

Individual

• Recurve men: Im Dong Hyun, Korea (not competing)
• Recurve women: Ksenia Perova, Russia
• Compound men: Sebastien Peineau, France
• Compound women: Song Yun Soo, Korea (not competing)

Team

• Recurve men team: Italy
• Recurve women team: Korea
• Recurve mixed team: Korea
• Compound men team: USA
• Compound women team: Colombia
• Compound mixed team: Korea

5 storylines

1. Olympic qualification. The top eight recurve men’s and women’s teams win quota places for Tokyo 2020. That’s why the round of 16 is being held separately on Wednesday afternoon – because it might yield some of the biggest matches of the year.

The top four individuals not part of qualifying teams will also be awarded spots. Individual eliminations take place on Thursday. (Any leftover spaces will be decided in a secondary tournament on Friday.)

2. Home field. Stephan Hansen is the only archer to have won a world title on home soil in the last decade. He did so in Copenhagen in 2015. Prior to that, Ulsan in 2009 gave us two Korean champions – Lee Chang-Hwan and Joo Hyun Jung in the recurve events.

The Netherlands squad is bursting at the seams with talented archers. Mike Schloesser,  Steve Wijler and Sjef van den Berg have all shot international medal matches this year. And there’s depth behind them, too.

3. Deserving. There are three archers who, despite much international success, have not yet won an outdoor world title. Brady Ellison, Sara Lopez and Braden Gellenthien have 10 Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion crowns between them. Is the world championships destined to elude this talented trio another time?

4. Cuts. In three of the four individual divisions at this Hyundai World Archery Championships, there will be a cut to progress past the qualification phase of the competition. There is only space for 104 archers in each bracket. It means that the event will last only 72 arrows for about 180 athletes.

5. Acclimatisation. This has been a busy – perhaps frantic – season so far. Travel takes a toll and that’s why many teams have stayed local in advance of the championships.

The USA, Canada, Russia and many more arrived in the Netherlands early, some even since the most recent stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup held in Antalya just two weeks ago.

Favourites

The top world ranked archers in each individual division as they arrive in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

Recurve men

1. Lee Woo Seok, Korea
2. Steve Wijler, Netherlands
3. Brady Ellison, USA

Recurve women

1. Kang Chae Young, Korea
2. Tan Ya-Ting, Chinese Taipei
3. Ksenia Perova, Russia

Compound men

1. Mike Schloesser, Netherlands
2. Braden Gellenthien, USA
3. Stephan Hansen, Denmark

Compound women

1. Sara Lopez, Colombia
2. Yesim Bostan, Turkey
3. Sophie Dodemont, France

Competition format

Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres away, with 10 scoring zones. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to rank athletes, and is followed by knock-out elimination matches resolved using the set system.

Athletes shoot sets of three arrows – and the highest-scoring athlete in the set receives two set points; a draw awards one set point to each athlete. The first athlete to six set points wins the match.

(Teams shoot sets of six arrows and mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows, two per athlete. The first team or mixed team to five set points wins the match.)

Compound athletes shoot at 80cm targets set 50 metres away, with 10 scoring zones (the outer four are removed). Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to rank athletes, and is followed by knock-out elimination matches resolved using cumulative scoring.

Athletes shoot 15 arrows, in five ends of three arrows, and the highest-scoring athlete wins the match.

(Teams shoot 24 arrows and mixed teams shoot 16 arrows, two per athlete per end.)

The 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships take place on 10-16 June in ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.