Round-up: Arreola dazzles as USA matches Korean gold tally

USA matched Korea for gold medals on a memorable 10th anniversary of the first staging of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin.

Hosts Colombia picked up one win and were denied two more by 15-year-old Liko Arreola, who won compound women’s individual and team gold.

Arreola was the only new name to collect individual stage win this week, though there were welcome returns to the top of the podium for compound man Abhishek Verma and recurver Mauro Nespoli.

There was no upsetting the formbook in the recurve women’s event, with top seed Lim Sihyeon winning her second consecutive gold to stretch her unbeaten run to two World Cup stages.

The 20-year-old added team gold to her growing haul of medals but there was no clean sweep in the recurve team events for Korea on this occasion, with USA topping the rostrum in the mixed team final.

Colombia’s sole success came in the compound mixed team event with Sara Lopez securing just one win on home soil despite making three finals, while Guatemala earned their first ever World Cup stage medal with a magical triumph in the compound men’s team event.

Key takeaways

Arreola off to a stunning start. Liko Arreloa‘s World Cup debut could not have gone much better as the teenager claimed double gold in Medellin. She demonstrated a fantastic temperament to stay in the contest against serial winner Sara Lopez, who led by as many as three points after the first three ends. Seemingly unfazed, Arreola hung on before forcing a one-arrow shoot-off which she won with a 10, and in doing so became the youngest individual medallist at a World Cup aged just 15 years and 330 days.

Verma back to his best. There was much intrigue around how India’s Abhishek Verma would fare on his return to the World Cup stage, in his first event of 2023. With two career wins on the circuit to date – Paris 2021 and Wroclaw 2015 (!) – the Indian archer cruised to compound gold to join compatriots Prathamesh Samadhan Jawkar and Jyothi Surekha Vennam at the Hyundai Archery World Cup Final in Mexico later this year. Their success follows the appointment of two-time World Cup champion Sergio Pagni, and the Italian seems to have made an immediate impact, with India the closest challengers to Korea in the medal table.

Nespoli halts Korean charge. Marcus D’Almeida was the man to prevent a Korean recurve clean sweep in Shanghai and Mauro Nespoli assumed that responsibility in Medellin. The Italian had finished as a runner-up to a Korean in the same city 12 months ago so he would have been fearing the worse when 19-year-old sensation and third seed Kim Je Deok stood between him and gold this time round. But the Italian held his nerve, capitalising on a mistake from the youngster to prevail, as Korea’s wait for a stage win in the recurve men’s individual event, remarkably, goes on. After dominating qualifying for two stages running, they will be eager to secure a finals place when the season continues in Paris. 

Winners: Medellin 2023

See full results online.

• Recurve men: Mauro Nespoli, Italy
• Recurve women: Lim Sihyeon, Korea
• Compound men: Abhishek Verma, India
• Compound women: Liko Arreola, USA
• Recurve men team: Korea
• Recurve women team: Korea
• Recurve mixed team: USA
• Compound men team: Guatemala
• Compound women team: USA
• Compound mixed team: Colombia

Top of the medal table was Korea (three gold, two silver, one bronze), followed by USA (three gold, one silver, two bronze) and India (one gold, two silver and one bronze).

A total of 293 archers from 40 countries competed in the third stage of the 2023 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Medellin, Colombia. Qualification and eliminations took place at the Colombian team’s headquarters of Unidad Deportiva de Belén on 13-16 June, followed by finals at the Parques de Rio on 17-18 June.

The international circuit now moves to Paris, France for its fourth stage on 15-20 August.