With a participation of 155 archers from 27 countries, the 7th World University Archery Championship, staged in Tainan, Chinese Taipei from July 7th to 10th, 2008, beat the participation record for the FISU Archery World Championships (WUAC). In the previous edition in Slovakia in 2006 the number of participants was of 124 competitors.
Individual Competitions
Recurve Women
In the division of recurve women, there was also a sisterly struggle in the final. Two outstanding Korean archers KI Bo-Be and LEE Hyun Chu performed a peaceful match against each other. Finally, KI Bo-Be’s 109 pts defeated LEE Hyun Chu’s 105 and received the gold medal. The bronze medallist was Russian Stepanova who beat YUAN Shu-Chi from Chinese Taipei by 109 pts. To everyone’s surprise, another host Olympic archer Wu Hui-Ju did not make into the 1/8.
Recurve Men
In the recurve men discipline, the final turned out to be a civil war. Two archers from Chinese Taipei competed against each other. In a relaxing atmosphere, WANG Cheng-Pang shot 112 pts, winning the first gold medal as well his first one in a WUC. The silver medallist KUO Cheng-Wei scored 106 pts, twice holding the honour of the second. WANG Cheng-Pang had gone through all the eliminations smoothly. Conversely, KUO Cheng-Wei got behind at first in the 1/8. With his steadiness, he made a tie with Korean JIN Seong-Yeop and finally won out by a 10 arrow in the second playoff. Chinese Taipei performed a best ever match in this category of the WUC. The bronze medallist was Spaniard Prates, who will also go to the Beijing Olympic Games.
Compound Women
In the compound women final, Korean KWON Oh-Hyang lost her accuracy, shooting only 108 pts in the head-to-head battle. USA archer Anschutz, whose steady performance scored 110 pts, took the gold medal eventually. With another gold medal from compound men, USA defended their country’s prestige of the master of compound. The bronze medal match was also a civil war. Although the wind became stronger in the middle of the competition, it could not interfere with Russian Albina Loginova. She shot 111 pts and defeated her teammate Victoria Balzhanova, who lost by 109 pts.
Compound Men
In the compound men’s final, British Philip Glover just shot 110 pts, his lowest score in all the eliminations round. On the contrast, though American Jedo Greschock had a lower average of each arrow (9.25) than Philip (9.53) in the eliminations, he seized every chance to make a good shoot, especially during the final. Consequently, Greschock won the gold medal by 112 pts. The bronze medallist was Belgian Mathieu Vandepoele who shot 111 and beat off the Canadian Nathan Cameron.
Team Competitions
Compound Men
In Compound Men the leading and favourite team, USA, was beaten by ITA in ¼ finals: 22 hits to 21. It was an intensive match from the beginning until the very last arrow. Having “removed” USA from the competition, Italy felt that the Gold was for them…. But this is the excitement of the Academic Round. Nobody counted with Mexico, the team number 3 in the Qualification. The Mexicans progressed in the competition with not easy matches at all. In ¼ finals they tied with Malaysia with 19 hits. After 2 shoot-off, Mexico won by one single hit (2-3). In ½ finals they met with France. Again this was a hard match, where France lost by one single hit: 21 to 22. So, Mexico was in the finals fighting for the Gold and against Italy. And Mexico loves “gold”! So, they completed a great round finishing 18 hit against 16 from Italy. Mexico Gold and Italy Silver. For Bronze, Belgium defeated France (21 to 20 hits).
Compound Women
In Compound Women Korea and USA were the favourites to meet in the final. Here again the competition was a surprise. Korea arrived to the finals with 23 hits against ITA (FISU World Record). But USA lost against Russia 22 to 20 hits in Semi-finals. So the “USA girls” had to go for the bronze. They got it defeating Italy in the Bronze medal match 23 hits against 14. The brave USA archers didn’t want to have more surprises. They wanted the medal! In the gold match we saw again an exciting shoot-off. After the 24 arrows shot, Russia and Korea tied 21 to 21. First 3 arrows to break the tie ended in 3-3. Still equal! Second end of 3 arrows and again 3-3. The last shoot-off has to be broken measuring the closest arrow to the centre if the score of both team is tied. And this was the case! 2-2. So the judges needed to make an accurate measurement and the best arrow of Korea was closer to the centre than the closest of Russia. Korea got the gold by “millimetres” and celebrated it with all the team, coaches and officials present in the Field. It could not have been a better final. 3 shoot-offs and the suspense to know what arrow was closer.
Recurve Men
In Recurve Men, and after the level showed in the qualification round, the final expected was TPE against KOR. No surprises here. Both teams met in the Gold medal match. Only Korea had a bit of difficulties in Semi-finals against Spain, as they won just by one point in the last arrow during a tough match (16-15). But TPE went to the final without “sweating” at all. The final was always open to any of the teams until the end of the 24 arrows, when TPE managed to have one more hit than KOR, 19 to 18. The celebration was “total” among the volunteers, media present (in a high number) and organizers. For the Bronze, Poland faced Spain… and in order to not disappoint the spectators, both tied after the end of their 24 arrows (17 to 17). One end for breaking the shoot-off and … 3-3. Second end of shoot-off and 2-2. So, again it was necessary to go to the third end and measuring the arrow if the score would be tied. Indeed it was: 3-3 and … Poland got the closest arrow to the centre. Poland Bronze and Spain 4th.
Recurve Women
In Recurve Women Korea landed in the Gold medal match beating all their opponents with clear superiority. And in the final they met Russia who beat Germany (3rd) in the ¼ finals after a 2 ends shoot-off (12-12, 3-3, 1-0) … and then used their motivation against TPE beating them 16-11. The match of Russia against Korea had no story at all. 16 to 10 … with Korea leading since the first arrows. But the intensity of the Recurve Women’s final had to come in the Bronze medal match. After shooting all their arrows, Japan, who eliminated Poland (12-11) and lost in ½ finals against Korea, tied 14 hits to 14 against Chinese Taipei. After 2 shoot-offs, Japan got the Bronze.
Mixed Competitions
Recurve
In Recurve division, Malaysia met Chinese Taipei for the gold. The “couple” of Malaysia was shooting really well. But they could not beat in the last moment the strong team of Chinese Taipei. The match ended 9 -7. For the bronze medal, Spain met Japan and this time, Spain didn’t want to get a 4th place again (one in individual and one in teams) and defeated Japan 10 to 7 hits.
Compound
In Compound Mixed teams, everybody was expecting USA against Korea… but no, Russia wanted to have a change to get their gold medal and found the right moment to try it in the mixed team Compound. After their 16 arrows, the scoreboards showed 15 to 15. So, more intensity to come. In the shoot-off USA won 2 hits against 1. USA was the leading team at the beginning of the week, and ended the competition showing their skills and accuracy. They took the gold! The competition was interrupted a couple of times because of heavy rain. But this didn’t decrease the level of the matches and the excellent atmosphere of competition, fair sportsmanship and friendship we enjoyed the entire day of the Team matches… and during the entire week. Encouraging! The Championship was closed with the medal ceremonies and the Organizers did a good job delivering very good championships in difficult weather conditions. The next meeting of the University archers will be at the Summer Universiade in Belgrade in 2009.
