Beginners’ guide to the Bangkok 2019 Asian Archery Championships
The Indoor Archery World Series might already be underway but the outdoor archery season stretches into the northern hemisphere’s winter in 2019.
Bangkok hosts the 21st edition of the Asian Archery Championships this November. It‘s an important event in the continental calendar – as it not only will crown champions in the region but also award six places to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The Asian Games was the first event to offer Olympic spots – back in August 2018. This upcoming tournament is the first in the continental championship phase of the qualification process. The equivalent events in the Americas, Oceania and Europe take place next spring.
(Africa held a single continental qualification tournament at its Games.)
More about the Olympic qualification later in the week. Qualification at the 2019 Asian Archery Championships starts on Saturday 22 November.
Event details
- Event: Asian Archery Championships
- Venue: Bangkok national archery field
- Dates: 22-28 November 2019
- Numbers: 251 from 29 countries (85 recurve men, 73 recurve women, 49 compound men, 44 compound women)
- Format: 72-arrow 70/50-metre ranking round followed by matchplay bracket
Coverage
News on www.worldarchery.sport and across World Archery’s social networks. Photo albums at www.worldarchery.smugmug.com. Video coverage on World Archery’s YouTube channel and Facebook page during finals.
Schedule
- Saturday 23 November: Recurve qualification.
- Sunday 24 November: Compound qualification and early eliminations (all categories).
- Monday 25 November: Early eliminations (all categories) and mixed team eliminations.
- Tuesday 26 November: Individual and team eliminations.
- Wednesday 27 November: Finals (gold medal matches only).
- Thursday 28 November: Olympic qualification tournament.
Reigning champions
These are the results from the 2017 Asian Archery Championships in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The most recent major continental event was the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Individual
- Recurve men: Lee Seungyun, Korea (not competing)
- Recurve women: Lee Eun Gyeong, Korea
- Compound men: Abhishek Verma, India
- Compound women: Song Yun Soo, Korea
Team
- Recurve men: Korea
- Recurve women: Korea
- Recurve mixed: Korea
- Compound men: Korea
- Compound women: India
- Compound mixed: Korea
Notes
This is a very different Korea. From restarting their national team trials from scratch – rather than giving the incumbents a free pass – to sending their top recurve squad to an Asian Championships (previously reserved for the second squad), the Koreans are taking the lead-up to Tokyo 2020 very seriously.
Archery’s leading nation is one of three Asian squads to have already secured a full six-athlete quota for the Games. China and Chinese Taipei are the other two. In total, nine Asian nations have qualified 30 spots so far.
By the end of the competition week in Bangkok, that number will have reached 36 – over a quarter of the 128 available places at the next Olympics.
India is competing under a neutral flag at these Asian Archery Championships. The country’s national archery federation is currently suspended – however, athletes have been permitted to enter through the sports ministry. (This is primarily to allow them to compete in the Olympic qualification process.)
Competition format
Recurve athletes shoot at 122cm targets set 70 metres away, with 10 scoring zones awarding 10 to one points. Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using set system matchplay.
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.
Mixed teams shoot sets of four arrows and teams shoot sets of six arrows, two arrows per athlete per set. The first team or mixed team to five set points wins the match.
Compound athletes shoot at 80cm targets set 50 metres away, with six scoring zones awarding 10 to five points (the outer four are removed). Competition starts with a 72-arrow ranking round, used to seed athletes, and is followed by an elimination bracket resolved using cumulative scoring matchplay.
Athletes shoot matches of 15 arrows, in five ends of three arrows, and the highest-scoring athlete wins the match. Mixed teams shoot matches of 16 arrows and teams shoot matches of 24 arrows, two arrows per athlete across four ends.
The 2019 Asian Archery Championships take place on 22-28 November in Bangkok, Thailand.
