Recurve team clean sweep for Korea in Paris
Korea bounced back from its shock early World Championship exit to claim recurve women’s team victory at Hyundai Archery World Cup stage 4 in Paris.
A second-round defeat against Indonesia at the Berlin 2023 Hyundai World Archery Championships represented Korea’s worst-ever world championship result but An San, Kang Chae Young and Lim Sihyeon wasted no time reasserting their authority in the French capital with back-to-back World Cup golds after Medellin in June.
“Yes, we are on the good mood now and I'm happy to have a victory with a team match with my teammates,” said Kang.
The Korean women sealed top spot on the podium with a 6-2 victory over Chinese Taipei in the final, coming from behind against Chiu Yi-Ching, Lei Chien-Ying and Peng Chia-Mao after losing the first set.
“This is a fantastic and beautiful venue for the Olympic Games ,” added Lim. “So I tried to enjoy and I'm looking forward to having more spectators next year.”
Korea went on to seal a clean sweep in the recurve team events, with the men also overcoming Chinese Taipei in the gold medal match.
Kim Je Deok, Kim Woojin and Lee Woo Seok built on their Berlin success and claimed a third successive World Cup stage victory, taking an unassailable 6-0 lead after three sets against Su Yu-Yang, Tai Yu-Hsuan and Wei Chun-Heng in a re-run of the final from stage 3 in Colombia.
“I think we deserved to win today,” said Je Deok. “We prepared a lot for this tournament, so we are quite happy with that.”
Lim and Lee teamed up to make it a hat-trick for Korea by winning recurve mixed team gold, with Chinese Taipei again forced to settle for silver.
The gold medal match was locked at 3-3 after three sets and the Korean pair shot 39, which proved enough as Peng and Su could only respond with 36.
It is Lee’s second World Cup gold of the season, backing up that which he won in Shanghai alongside Kang.
Li Jiaman and Wei Shaoxuan claimed bronze for China by overcoming Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande 6-2.
It is China’s second recurve mixed team medal of this World Cup campaign, Zhang Mengyao and Wang Dapeng having earned silver at stage 2 on home soil.
Action in Paris concludes on Sunday afternoon with recurve individual finals.
Podiums: Paris 2023
Check full results on the World Archery website.
Recurve men’s team
- Korea (Lee Woo Seok, Kim Je Deok, Kim Woojin)
- Chinese Taipei (Wei Chun-Heng, Tai Yu-Hsuan, Su Yu-Yang)
- India (Tushar Prabhakar Shelke, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Atanu Das)
Recurve women’s team
- Korea (Kang Chae Young, An San, Lim Sihyeon)
- Chinese Taipei (Peng Chia-Mao, Chiu Yi-Ching, Lei Chien-Ying)
- India (Ankita Bhakat, Simranjeet Kaur, Bhajan Kaur)
Recurve mixed team
- Korea (Lim Sihyeon, Lee Woo Seok)
- Chinese Taipei (Peng Chia-Mao, Su Yu-Yang)
- China (Li Jiaman, Wei Shaoxuan)