SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Choi Yong-hee grabbed a bronze medal in the men’s individual compound event for the host South Korea’s first medal at the World Archery Championships on Monday.
Choi defeated Curtis Broadnax of the United States 146-145 in the bronze medal match at the May 18 Democracy Plaza in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul.
The world championships began Saturday with the men’s, women’s and mixed team events in compound, and South Korea was shut out of medals in all three. In individual competitions, Choi was the only South Korean archer, male or female, to even get past the round of 32.
In individual compound matches, archers each take 15 arrows, three arrows across five ends. Cumulative points determine the winner, with the maximum score being 150. In case of a tie after five ends, archers go to a shoot-off, with the one hitting closer to the center of the target earning the victory.
Choi held off James Lutz of the United States 147-146 in the round of 16, and then beat Yagiz Sezgin of Turkey 148-147 in the quarterfinals.
Choi then lost to Nicolas Girard of France in the shoot-off in the semifinals, after the two were tied at 149-149 after five ends. Choi shot a 9 to Girard’s 10 with their final arrow.
In the bronze medal match, Choi trailed Broadnax 117-116 with one end to go, and then shot three consecutive 10s for the comeback win, as the American went 9-10-9 in his final end.
This was Choi’s first career individual medal at worlds.
“I am really happy. Obviously, I wanted to win the gold medal here but I had that disappointing loss in the semifinals,” Choi said. “It wasn’t easy early on in the bronze medal match but I am still happy to win the first medal for our country here.”
The world championships will continue Tuesday with the knockout matches for the women’s individual event in compound and the qualification rounds for the men’s, women’s and mixed team events in recurve.
The team recurve medals will be awarded Wednesday, followed by the men’s medals Thursday and the women’s medals Friday, the last day of the competition.
Gwangju is the first South Korean host of the archery worlds since the southeastern city of Ulsan in 2009.
(Yonhap)
