Taiwan’s compound mixed team of Chen Chieh-lun and Huang I-jou on Saturday finished with a silver medal at the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Aburndale, Florida, while Chen picked up bronze in the men’s individual event on the international circuit’s first stop.
In the championship round, Chen and Huang encountered strong Indian compound archers Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Rishabh Yadav. Vennam won three gold medals in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The compound competition at the Archery World Cup uses a total points system. In the mixed team events, each team is allowed 80 seconds to shoot four arrows in each set. After four sets, the team with the highest total score wins.
Photo: CNA
The Taiwanese archers got off to a good start in the match, securing a 38-37, 39-38 lead in the first two sets, for a total score of 77-75.
Despite trailing 38-39, the Taiwanese pair remained in the lead with a total score of 115-114 following the first three sets.
However, they lost the fourth set 36-39, due to a surprise shot of only eight by Huang, which left the pair with a 151-153 finish.
Nevertheless, the match took on special significance after the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday announced that compound archery, including the mixed team event, would debut at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“We are very excited that we made it, especially after getting the news about the compound mixed team going to the Olympics,” World Archery’s Web site quoted Huang as saying, in reference to the Taiwanese duo defeating Italy to make the final in Florida.
“I’ve trained for quite a long time and waited for this exciting moment that we have the chance to compete in the Olympics,” she told World Archery. “I’m really excited about that, and I will do my best to get there.”
Chen and Huang’s showdown with Italy’s Michea Godano and Elisa Roner on Friday came down to a judge’s review, after they finished tied 156-156.
In the shoot-out, Chen and Godano both hit the X-ring, while Huang and Roner both shot 10s, leaving the judges to determine which of the men’s arrows was nearest to the center, World Archery reported. They sided with Taiwan.
In the men’s individual compound semi-finals on Saturday, Chen narrowly lost 146-143 to world No. 2 Mathias Fullerton of Denmark. They advanced on Thursday after both posting a perfect 150 over their opponents.
In the first set, world No. 76 Chen took a one point lead over Fullerton, who won a silver medal in the mixed team event at the 2023 World Archery Championships.
Chen held the lead in the second and third sets, before Fullerton tied the match 116-116 in the fourth. In the final set, the Dane edged Chen by three points to advance to the final, where he beat Mexico’s Sebastian Garcia 148-144.
In the bronze-medal match, Chen took an early two-point lead over India’s Abhishek Verma in the opening set, which he extended to a 145-141 victory by the fifth set.
Earlier in the week, the Taiwan men’s recurve team of Su Yu-yang, Tang Chih-chun and Tai Yu-hsuan defeated Spain 5-1 to win the bronze medal.
Similarly, Taiwan’s women’s recurve team of Hsu Hsin-tzu, Chiu Yi-ching and Li Cai-xuan dominated Spain 5-1 for the bronze medal after losing a semi-final shoot-out to the US.
In the semi-final, Taiwan recovered from two losing sets to top the US 55-54, 53-52 to force the shoot-out.
Taiwan matched the US 10-10, 9-9 in the first two arrows, before 20-year-old Li — who was making her World Cup debut alongside 17-year-old Hsu — tripped up with a wide seven to the US’ nine, World Archery reported.
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