Chinese Zhang wins Women’s Archery gold

Full name: Zhang Juanjuan

Gender: Female

Height: 5’7″ (169 cm)

Weight: 139 lbs (63 kg)

Born: January 2, 1981 in Qingdao, Shandong, China

Affiliations: Shandong, (CHN)

Country: China

Sport: Archery

2004 Summer Olympics

Zhang represented China at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She placed 5th in the women’s individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 663. In the first round of elimination, she faced 60th-ranked Aurore Trayan of France. Zhang defeated Trayan 135-122 in the 18-arrow match to advance to the round of 32. In that round, she faced 28th-ranked Polish archer Iwona Marcinkiewicz. Zhang won the match 166-157 in the regulation 18 arrows, advancing to the round of 16. She then lost to 21st-ranked and eventual bronze medalist Alison Williamson of Great Britain  165-161, finishing 10th in women’s individual archery.

2008 Summer Olympics

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At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Zhang finished her ranking round with a total of 635 points. This gave her the 27th seed for the final competition bracket in which she faced Tetyana Berezhna in the first round, beating the archer from Ukraine 109-97. In the second round Zhang was too strong for 6th seed Yuan Shu Chi (110-105) and via 11th seed Natalia Erdyniyeva (110-98) in the third round she advanced to the quarter finals. There she had no problem beating Joo Hyun-Jung 106-101. In the semi final se upset another South Korean Yun Ok-Hee with 115-109. The 115 points equalled the newly set Olympic Record by Park Sung-Hyun earlier that day. Park turned out to be Zhang’s opponent in the final and in a close match with the lead switching from one to the other Zhang eventually won the gold in a 110-109 match, becoming that first non-Korean to win the event since 1984.

Together with Chen Ling and Guo Dan she also took part in the team event. With her 635 score from the ranking round combined with the 645 of Chen and the 636 of Guo the Chinese team was in third position after the ranking round, which gave them a straight seed into the quarter finals. With 211-206 they were too strong for the Indian team. In the semi final against Great Britain they scored 208 points with the British scoring 202, securing their final spot. Opponent South Korea came with a strong 224 points performance, resulting in the silver medal for China, as 215 points was not enough to claim the gold.

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