Kang Chae Young regains Hyundai Archery World Cup title

Korea’s Kang Chae Young beat hometown girl Alejandra Valencia to be crowned Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion in Hermosillo, Mexico. 

With the crowd supporting her, Valencia survived two close matches to reach the recurve women’s final where she met Kang for the first time internationally since the 2017 Summer Universiade.

Relishing the intense atmosphere, the Korean silenced the crowd with 6-2 victory and a second Hyundai Archery World Cup crown, regaining her 2019 title. 

“Four years is a long time so I have had to be patient,” said Kang. “This encourages me and everything was perfect for me to show my best performance.”

Kang’s win ensures the recurve women’s crown stays in Korean hands after Olympic Champion An San won the 2022 edition in Tlaxcala, with the squad’s attention now shifting to the Asian Games.

The other podium place also went to Korea with Lim Sihyeon beating USA’s Casey Kaufhold in straight sets in the bronze medal match.

On the way to the gold medal match in Hermosillo, Kang showed her class in dominant wins over world number one Penny Healey, 7-3 in the quarterfinal, and Kaufhold who she overwhelmed 7-1 in the semifinal.

Having shot a four in the second end of her first match, Valencia fought back from 4-2 down to beat Chinese Taipei’s Peng Chia-Mao and needed the tiebreaker to get past Lim in the semis.

It made you feel the script had already been written as, in the final, Valencia shot a perfect 30 in the first end to make a superb start.

But the Mexican then made some mistakes with a couple of eights and even a six in the third set.

Kang took control with three strong ends – putting all but one of her 12 arrows in the yellow ring – to win the match and claim a second Hyundai Archery World Cup Final crown.

Competition concludes in Hermosillo with the recurve men’s finals later in the evening.

Final ranking: Recurve women

1.  Kang Chae Young, Korea
2.  Alejandra Valencia, Mexico
3.  Lim Sihyeon, Korea
4.  Casey Kaufhold, USA
5.  Peng Chia-Mao, Chinese Taipei 
6.  Penny Healey, Great Britain
7.  Michelle Kroppen, Germany
8.  Lisa Barbelin, France