China Archery

By Chris Wells

The Korean recurve women’s team did take a ninth gold at the event.

Chinese Taipei’s compound pair and recurve men’s team upset top-ranked Korea to win gold medals at the 2018 Asian Games, leaving only the Korean women with a title on the first day of finals in Jakarta.

“Our whole year has been working towards this. Winning gold is a great honour for our country,” said mixed team member and top compound women’s qualifier Chen Yi-Hsuan, with partner Pan Yu Ping.

The compound mixed team final was neck-and-neck.

Tied with reigning World Archery Champion Korea on 76 points at the halfway point, Chinese Taipei’s Chen and Pan edged one point ahead after 12 arrows.

“We felt really confident going into the final end,” said the Taipei pair. “We had done a lot of practise of this [situation] and it was a really enjoyable match.”

After two arrows, Korea had levelled the match – but Kim Jongho’s last-arrow eight nullified a comeback, giving Chinese Taipei the match, 151-150.

The recurve men’s team final was equally as close.

Despite leading early, it looked as though Chinese Taipei might fold as Korea drew level after the third set with an impressive 58-point volley.

Cool heads prevailed, as Wei Chun-Heng, Tang Chih-Chun and Lou Wei Min closed better – 56 points to 55 in the fourth set – for the second consecutive final against the Korean favourites.

(Chinese Taipei’s men also beat Korea to gold at the fourth stage of the 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup.)

“[Berlin] gave our team confidence. We know we can match-up well against them or any team in the world,” said Wei. “There is no secret. We just have a very hard working team with real talent and a passion for shooting.”

The Korean women won one gold medal over Chinese Taipei in the first final of the day in Jakarta.

It could have gone either way, with the match also tied heading into the final set. Korea took the last set by a point, 54-53, to win a title the nation has now taken nine of 11 times it’s been awarded at the Asian Games.

For Olympic Champion Chang Hye Jin, it was a second consecutive Asian Games team gold. She was joined in the 2018 team by Lee Eun Gyeong and Kang Chae Young.

Japan beat DPR Korea in the recurve mixed team final, which acted as the first opportunity to win places to the next Olympic Games.

With Japan the host of Tokyo 2020, the country will automatically qualify the full six places as long as it competes at the World Archery Championships in 2019. If that occurs, as is expected, then these places would be reassigned according to the published Olympic qualification procedure.

Pictures via Andrea Gabardi and Chinese Taipei Archery Association. The archery competitions at the 2018 Asian Games take place on 21-28 August in Jakarta, Indonesia.