China Archery

25 September 2010, SHENZHEN – Following the impressive Opening Ceremony on September 23rd, the 8th World University Archery Championship competitions have started. After the rains during the last several days due to the passage of a typhoon, the sun has taken the place in the sky. Despite of the high temperature and the humidity, it was nevertheless a better weather for the best world university archers.

On the program of this first day were the qualifications for the Men and Women Recurve and Compound Bow as well as the Mixed Team competition, for which the bronze medals have already been attributed. Technical conditions were just perfect in the Shenzhen Stadium. Our CT Chair Juan Carlos Holgado and FITA Technical Delegate Frankie Hoong were very satisfied about the way the competition was running, and also by the level of the archers. The best of them are competing in the World Cup events and other big international events.

Finland bowed the first medal of Compound Mixed Team bronze. The gold medal will be competed between the United States and Iran. The bronze medal of Recurve Mixed Team went to Chinese Taipei, who beat Republic of Korea 12-7. Italy and Japan will go to the final on Sunday.

The world’s top archers among University students also tested their mettle during the morning session, filled with the qualifications of Recurve Men’s, Recurve Women, Compound Men and Compound Women. The competitors performed a high level match with the help of the good sunny weather.

After the Individual 1/32 Elimination in the afternoon, American archers delivered good results by taking the first and third in the Compound Men. Top 3 finishers in Compound Women Individual 1/32 Elimination were: Mahtab Parsamehr from Iran, Erika Anschutz from the United States and Ji Hyun Seok from Republic of Korea. In Recurve Men, Korean archer Seong Hoon Kim scored 679 and claimed the first place. Le Chien Ying from Chinese Taipei ranked the first of Recurve Women after the 1/32 elimination matches with the score of 666.

“Today’s weather is very good for the game, not windy, not rainy,” said William Coady, coach of the American delegation. “All my team members are doing well in achieving the best of themselves and several of them shoot very well, like Adam Gallant, who ranked the first place in Compound Men. We are planning medals, but what’s the most important is that everyone is doing better than usual.”

Hernandez Jose Roberto, the only athlete from El Salvador competing in the championship won a second place in Compound Men of Individual 1/32 Elimination. “It’s a good experience for me,” said Hernandez, “I’m very happy because I have worked very hard to come here and I finished as second today.” Sung Chia Chun from Chinese Taipei, ranked the fourth in Recurve Men ranking round, said he was not satisfied with his performance today. “It didn’t meet my expectation,” said Sung, “Korean competitors performed very strong in the ranking round, but we will battle it out in the elimination matches that really talks.” In the matches, each athlete shoots 72 arrows from a distance of 70 meters in recurve bow or 50 meters in compound bow.