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.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS