Korea and Colombia set to defend mixed team world titles

The reigning mixed team world champions – Korea (recurve) and Colombia (compound) – will defend their titles in Berlin on Friday after progressing through Wednesday’s elimination brackets at the 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships.

As well as taking individual gold, Kim Woojin won this event alongside An San two years ago in Yankton. He has Lim Sihyeon for company this time around, with the pair looking to continue Korea’s record of winning every mixed team gold at the Hyundai Archery World Championships since the event was incorporated in 2011.

The ultra-experienced Woojin praised his teammate, who is unbeaten individually so far in 2023, her debut year on the Korean team.

“Sihyeon is pretty much a super-rookie,” he said. “She gives me a lot of strength and helps me along when we compete together.”

“She’s an incredible athlete and she’s the kind of archer that knows how to execute a 10 when she needs one.”

The feeling between them is mutual, with Lim adding: “Shooting with Kim Woojin is always easy because whenever there’s something I’m struggling with, he helps me along. And he shoots really well!”

They were given a scare in their quarterfinal, needing a shoot-off to overcome Ukraine’s Anastasia Pavlova and Ivan Kozhokar after the scores were locked after four sets.

Having come through that, two more comfortable clashes followed as both Kazakhstan and Italy were beaten with clean sheets, a closing perfect-40 sealing the deal against the former, to book a place in Friday’s showpiece.

“It is our goal to put on a show worthy for the audience,” Kim concluded. “We will do everything in our power to do that in the finals.”

Germany will face Korea for gold after Michelle Kroppen and Florian Unruh shone in matchplay.

The host nation’s pair defeated the Netherlands and Japan, each 6-2, to set up a semifinal with Chinese Taipei, which went down to the wire. The two were tied after regulation.

A near-perfect 10 from Kroppen in the shoot-off sent Germany through and kept Unruh’s hopes of a second mixed team championship medal alive, the 30-year-old having won silver alongside now-wife Lisa in 2017.

The duo were backed by vocal home support throughout and both archers were quick to hail their importance.

“It is amazing to have such a crowd,” Kroppen said. “They are standing behind us cheering super loud, it is a super good atmosphere in the team.”

“We have a lot of teammates here and it is good to have the support of everyone. We shoot for Germany and not for ourselves, so everyone is happy about it.”

Unruh won the European Games last month – and arrives in Berlin keen to repeat such results.

“To hear the support from behind was great,” he said. “My shooting really improved today compared to qualification so if I can take that level to tomorrow it will be really good.”

The reigning world championship nation will also appear in the compound mixed team final.

Sara Lopez, who was one half of the winning team in Yankton, and Sebastian Arenas needed a shoot-off to get past Chinese Taipei in the second round after they were tied at 155 apiece.

They then beat Estonia in the quarterfinal, and were locked at 77-77 in the semifinal with Luxembourg’s Mariya Shkolna and Gilles Seywert before a perfect 40 in the third end helped the Colombians pull ahead, and ultimately triumph.

“It was the hardest semifinals we have shot, and we closed with the highest-scoring match on the field so for us, that is very satisfactory,” Lopez said. “Luxembourg from the beginning was the strongest team, and our side of the bracket was the hardest one.”

Having upset the top qualifiers from India in the eliminations, Alexis Ruiz and Sawyer Sullivan of the USA sealed their spot in the final in style with four perfect 10s in the final end against Netherlands’ Sanne de Laat and Mike Schloesser.

“We are super excited,” Sullivan said. “It was super good shooting today from both of us and it’s fun shooting as a team.”

“It was a bit of a weird wind on our tails so you couldn’t guess what it was going to do so you just had to trust and make it a good shot.”

They will now look to secure their country’s first mixed team win at the World Archery Championships.

Surprisingly, the traditionally strong US compound squad has only one previous podium in the event, a bronze medal in 2013.

Competition continues with compound team eliminations this evening in Berlin.

Mixed team results: Berlin 2023

The medal matches are scheduled for Friday 4 August.

Recurve

• Gold medal match: Korea (1) versus Germany (6)
• Bronze medal match: Italy (13) versus Chinese Taipei (7)

Compound

• Gold medal match: USA (9) versus Colombia (2)
• Bronze medal match: Luxembourg (11) versus Netherlands (5)