21 nations have booked their tickets to Rio after they qualified spots at the 2015 World Archery Championships. The top 8 recurve teams along with the 8 highest not yet qualified individuals were given quotas to compete. The World Archery Championships were held in Copenhagen, Denmark from July 26th to August 2nd 2015.
With Brazil failing to qualify to the round of 16 in the women’s team recurve it was a simple whoever reached the quarterfinals will qualify scenario. The biggest upsets were Colombia beating Chinese Taipei and Georgia defeating Italy as both nations qualified to the Olympics. The other six nations to book their spot were South Korea, Russia, Mexico, China, Japan and India. The upsets continued in the following rounds with Russia defeating Mexico and South Korea to reach the finals while India upset Japan in the semifinals who they themselves had just upset China in the quarterfinals. In the finals Russia and India had to take it to a fifth set where Russia was able to win 5-4. The bronze medal went to South Korea as they defeated Japan 5-1.
As Brazil qualified to the round of 16 had they won their match against Australia a repechage round for the round of 16 losers would have been needed in the men’s team recurve. However there was no need for that as Australia won its match. The other seven nations to qualify to the Olympics were South Korea, Spain, United States, Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, China and Italy. Despite needing a fifth round to defeat Poland South Korea was able to cruise the rest of their matches defeating Spain and the United States in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively to meet Italy in the finals. From there they continued their dominate performance and defeated Italy in straight sets, 6-0 to win. The United States won bronze by defeating Chinese Taipei 6-2.
In the women’s individual recurve the first set of Olympic quotas were decided in the round of 32. Lin Shih-chia (Chinese Taipei), Lisa Unruh (Germany), Veronika Marchenko (Ukraine), Khatuna Lorig (United States) and Ika Rochmawati (Indonesia) were able to win their matches to advance to the round of 16 as they were the final archers remaining that had not qualified from the team event. The event was won by South Korea’s Ki Bo-bae whom defeated Lin Shih-chia of Chinese Taipei. The bronze medal went to South Korea’s Choi Mi-sun whom defeated India’s Laxmirani Majhi.
To decide the final three spots a secondary Olympic qualifier bracket was set up for eligible individuals whom lost in the round of 32. They were Semra Lingard (Australia), Olga Senyuk (Azerbaijan), Laurence Baldauff (Austria), Karina Lipiarska (Poland), Guendalina Sartori (Italy) and Karyna Dziominskaya (Belarus). The bracket was won by Sartori whom defeated Baldauff 6-4. The third and final spot went to Lipiarska whom defeated Senyuk 6-4.
Six out of the eight spots available in the men’s individual recurve were decided in the round of 32. Viktor Ruban (Ukraine), Takaharu Furukawa (Japan), Elias Malave (Venezuela), Managal Champia (India), Daniel Betancur (Colombia) and Crispin Duenas (Canada) were able to win their matches to advance to the round of 16. The event was won by South Korea’s Kim Woo-jin whom defeated Netherlands’ Rick van der Ven 6-2. The bronze medal went to Japan’s Takaharu Furukawa whom defeated Venezuela’s Elias Malave 6-5.
A separate bracket that included eligible round of 32 losers was created to decide the final two spots. In total 13 archers from 12 nations were fighting for one of the two spots. Germany was guaranteed a quota when both of their archers met in the semifinals. It was Florian Kahllund whom defeated his compatriot Christian Weiss 7-1. In the other semi-final it was Indonesia’s Riau Ega Agatha whom defeated Mexico’s Ernesto Boardman 7-3 to win the final spot. In the final Kahllund defeated Agatha 7-3.
Next up for archery are the continental championships. A nation can only qualify a single individual unless it has a team. The final team qualifiers won’t be held until the final qualifier to be held in 2016.
Number of Athletes by Nation
- China – 6
- South Korea – 6
- Chinese Taipei – 4
- Colombia – 4
- India – 4
- Italy – 4
- Japan – 4
- United States – 4
- Australia – 3
- Georgia – 3
- Mexico – 3
- Netherlands – 3
- Russia – 3
- Spain – 3
- Germany – 2
- Indonesia – 2
- Ukraine – 2
- Austria – 1
- Canada – 1
- Poland – 1
- Venezuela – 1
References
Road to the Olympics 