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What happened last time? A pre-Lausanne rewind to the World Cup stage in Shanghai in 2019

9 May 2021

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The most recent second stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup took place in Shanghai in 2019.

We were supposed to be back again this year but, due to ongoing restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was relocated to the World Archery Excellence Centre in the Olympic capital of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Still, for the purposes of our rewind, we’ll stick with Shanghai as ‘last time’!

Shooting over the beautiful ornimental lake two years ago in Luziaji Park, Kang Chae Young of Korea collected a second consecutive stage victory when she defeated Japan’s Tomomi Sugimoto in straight sets in the recurve women’s final. The 22-year-old, at the time, had never finished on the individual podium more than once in a single season, let alone with two golds.

She rectified that with the convincing victories in both Medellin and Shanghai on her way to the circuit trophy in Moscow.

Who’ll join Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari, Braden Gellenthien and Nora Valdez – winners at last month’s season opener in Guatemala City – as qualifiers at this year’s season-ending event with wins at the second stage of the 2021 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Lausanne?

Before we find out, let’s rewind back two years and recap Shanghai 2019 in full.

Lee Woo Seok shoots at the second stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai.

The top qualifiers

Recurve men: Lee Woo Seok, Korea – 688
Recurve women: Choi Misun, Korea – 680
Compound men: Matt Sullivan, USA – 712
Compound women: Tanja Jensen, Denmark – 703

Qualification at stage two saw Korea’s Lee Woo Seok and Choi Misun raise the recurve mixed team ranking round world record by four points to 1368, scoring 688 and 680, respectively – as Korea seeded top in all five recurve events.

The winners

Recurve men: Lee Woo Seok, Korea
Recurve women: Kang Chae Young, Korea
Compound men: Braden Gellenthien, USA
Compound women: So Chaewon, Korea

It was the second consecutive gold medal match on the circuit for Gellenthien, who lost to Mike Schloesser in Medellin. Braden was more fortunate this time around in Shanghai, securing his fifth stage victory. So Chaewon took the first international gold of her career.

Braden Gellenthien shoots at the second stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai.

How the wins happened

Recurve men: Lee Woo Seok shot an eight with his final arrow to beat teammate Kim Woojin in an uncharacteristically loose recurve men’s final. It was the fifth international meeting between the pair, with Woo Seok having won three of them.

Recurve women: Kang Chae Young won her second consecutive stage of the 2019 Hyundai Archery World Cup. The automatic space for the final available in Shanghai was therefore released, meaning four – rather than three – athletes would qualify on circuit ranking.

Compound men: Braden Gellenthien won compound men’s gold after first-time finalist Brend Frederickx gifted him an eight with his last arrow.

Compound women: After So Chaewon called Shanghai a “one-time opportunity” to qualify for the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final early in the week, with it being the only stage the Korean compounds would attend in 2019, she shot 148 points in the compound women’s final to claim her first international victory.

The best match

(Spoilers below.)

The most impressive archer in Shanghai wasn’t a winner. He finished his last match of the tournament with an eight – but his shooting and his demeanour up until that point hinted of bigger things to come.

As Braden Gellenthien said of Belgium's Brend Frederickx in his post-match victory interview: “He didn’t get to the finals by mistake, he deserved to be there and he shot just like… he proved it.”

It looked like the 21-year-old at the time might author a dramatic upset until the very last moments of the final. At the start of the fifth and final end, the international rookie was only one point off perfect and unexpectedly in command. Braden closed strong, finishing perfect and totalling 148 points. Frederickx just needed another 10 with his last arrow of the final to win.

But like one of his shots in the previous end, Brend’s hold was long. Too long. The shot broke just before the 20-second clock ran all the way down but the arrow went way wide to the left.

It wasn’t a 10 – for the win – or a nine, which would have sent the final to a shoot-off. It was an eight and the pendulum pacing the match had swung back in Braden’s favour.