Korea wins World Cup Final recurve mixed team title

Since the mixed team event was introduced to the competition in 2009, the recurve win has always gone to the travelling challengers. And that would prove correct once again.

The Korean mixed team – whatever the line-up – won all three Archery World Cup stages they attended: Shanghai, Antalya and Medellin. And they remained unbeaten in 2015, following a win at the World Championships as well, after the Mexico City 2015 Archery World Cup Final.

World Archery Champion Kim Woojin and Choi Misun, the individual Aquece Rio Olympic test event winners, competed together in Antalya.

Earlier on, both Woojin and Misun – both top seeds in Mexico – had qualified for the individual semi-finals, the only two survivors from a Korean team of four in Mexico.

“It’s a good preparation for our individual matches,” Kim Woojin explained. “We were focused on our shots.”

A Korean World Archery Champion and world medallist shooting together…

Host nation picks Alejandra Valencia and Luis Alvarez had a big task, despite having a 4,500-strong Mexican crowd fully behind them.

The Mexicans’ hopes were cut short by their opponents’ strong start. Woojin and Misun scored six 10s and two nines with their first eight arrows and won the first two sets.

Alejandra and Luiz took the third home and injected some life into the crowd but, with their opponents shooting just one arrow out of the gold through 16 arrows, they were outclassed over the length of the match.

Korea’s mixed double took the Archery World Cup Final recurve mixed title for the third time.

“I think I need to be faster, have a better rhythm while shooting,” said Alvarez, the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games Champion.

Still, Alvarez can boast of having pushed Kim Woojin to his limits in their individual quarterfinal after the most dramatic match of the morning session. Tied at 4-4, the Mexican needed a 10 to force a shoot-off, but after holding his last arrow for some time, he put his last arrow into the eight.

“It will always be good to shoot in such a great atmosphere,” Woojin said. “It was nice to see the people cheering on their team and how colorful everything is. For our first time in Mexico, we must admit, we are enjoying it a lot.”

Local favourite Alejandra Valencia wanted to thank the crowd: “We didn’t feel bad at any point because they were always happy, no matter where our arrows landed.”