Korean women’s archery, which was proud to be the best in the world, suffered the humiliation of not winning a single medal at the World Championships.
Ansan, Kang Chae-young, and Si-hyun Si of the Korean women’s archery recurve team were all eliminated in the quarterfinals of the individual event at the 2023 Berlin Archery World Championships held in Berlin, Germany on the 6th (Korean time).
It has been 12 years since the 2011 Turin Games that the Korean women’s recurve team failed to win a single medal in the individual event at the World Championships.
Previously, the women’s national team had failed in the medal hunt by kneeling to Indonesia in the round of 16 in the team event. . Coincidentally, the venue of the tournament was also Berlin.안전놀이터
The only medal the women’s national team won at this event is the mixed gender gold medal, which Sihyeon won by teaming up with Woojin Kim and her team.
The men’s national team was also sluggish. Apart from the gold medal in the mixed event mentioned above, the only medals won were the men’s team event, where Kim Woo-jin, Lee Woo-seok, and Kim Je-deok won gold medals.
At least, the men’s national team won the right to participate in the Paris Olympics early with a gold medal in the team event, but the women’s national team finished the tournament without any results and could not book a ticket to Paris. The women’s national team will try again to earn a ticket to the Paris Olympics at the Asian Championships to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in November.
The sluggishness of Korean archery, which swept 4 gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and took all 5 gold medals at the 2021 World Championships in Yankton, USA, is shocking news. In particular, despite the fact that most of the players who played a key role in both competitions remained intact, the national team did not show much. Failure to adapt to the chaotic local weather conditions, as well as improved skills in other countries, and failure to overcome the pressure are cited as the main reasons for this sluggish performance.
However, this is not the first time that the archery team has been sluggish at the World Championships ahead of the Olympics. The national team won only one gold medal, two silver medals, and two bronze medals in the 2019 Netherlands’ Hertogenbosch Games held before the Tokyo Olympics. Fortunately, the national team at the time rebounded immediately, and showed off the status of Korean archery in Tokyo without regret, showing a sample that ‘the word crisis is an abbreviation of danger and opportunity’. As the development of other countries is noticeably accelerating, we should learn lessons from this pain and use it as a springboard to take a leap forward.
Kim Seong-hoon, head coach of the national team, also said through the Korea Archery Association, “I am very disappointed with the results of the World Championships in Berlin. Using this as a stepping stone, I will do my best to prepare more closely for good results in the remaining international competitions.”
Meanwhile, the national team, which will move to Paris, France on the 7th local time and have a week of training, will participate in the 4th competition of the 2023 Modern Archery World Cup held as a test and event of the Paris Olympics from the 15th to the 20th.