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French pair stopped by perfect shoot-off after upsetting host Korea

24 May 2024

Yecheon, Korea

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French duo led by Lisa Barbelin upset host Korea.

France was agonisingly close to a gold medal match in the recurve mixed team semifinals at the second stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Yecheon.

Lisa Barbelin and Baptiste Addis had performed admirably throughout the eliminations not least because of their surprise win over home country and top seed Korea.

But after two ends a piece, it was Japan who stopped them in their tracks, winning via perfect score in the shootout, denying France their first gold or silver circuit medal since Antalya 2017.

“I was a little bit sad, but we had a strong match and it’s good to be in the bronze final match,” said a visibly upset Barbelin, who shot the costly nine in the shoot-off.

“The Japanese team, wow, they shot so well, X, X in the shoot-off. Congratulations to them.”

The recent European Archery Championships bronze medallist however believes that beating the likes of Shanghai 2024 winners Korea pays good omens for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

“There’s been a lot of work for two years and a lot of confidence. I want to be good in mixed team to show how I can be the best in the Olympic Games.”

It was an even bigger result for Junya Nakanishi with Sunday’s gold medal final a mixed team career first.

“Until now, I’ve been in bad shape and couldn’t perform well,” said the 24-year-old. “But I’m glad I was able to perform well here because the qualifying was good, and my condition was improving.”

He and teammate Ruka Uehara, who also hasn’t won a mixed team medal, will face off against Olympic bronze medallist Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande.

Grande has been cool, calm and collected all week.

The reigning Pan American Championships Champion qualified as the third seed in the recurve men’s event on Tuesday and is pleased to see Mexico overall improve.

“We are going to keep working hard and we are pleased that progress is going on and the hard work is paying off,” he said.

“It’s quite funny we met the same countries [Iran, Chinese Taipei, Spain]. They’re strong countries of course.”

“We needed to do our best because Spain won silver in Shanghai.”

It was Spain’s familiar duo of Shanghai recurve men’s individual winner Andres Temiño Mediel and Elia Canales in Korea, but Essen 2024 silver medallist Canales wasn’t disappointed.

“We are happy about our technique and how we try to do our best also. It’s (wind) for everybody and you must go for it even if it’s changing.”

In the compound mixed team event, Shanghai winners India and bronze medallists USA progressed to their consecutive stage finals, only this time the two countries will be shooting against each other for gold.

Being the highest male American seed in qualifications, Sawyer Sullivan joined Olivia Dean for USA’s mixed team replacing Kris Schaff from the first stage.

“I think I’m having a lot of fun because I’m not used to shooting with the guys. It’s a lot of fun shooting with the mixed team,” said Olivia, shooting mixed team for the first two times in 2024.

“We’re just going to do our own thing tomorrow, do the same thing we did today and I’m confident in Sawyer’s ability, my ability, so I think we’ll do well tomorrow.”

Tomorrow will be familiar territory for Indian opponents Priyansh and Jyothi Surekha Vennam after winning last month in Shanghai.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity. I’m confident. My rhythm and release were perfect,” Priyansh concisely revealed of his feelings ahead of Saturday.

Korea and Colombia will be in contention for compound mixed team bronze.

Competition in Yecheon continues with recurve individual eliminations on Friday afternoon.