Taiwan athletes shine at Archery World Cup

2017/06/13

Taiwan athletes gave strong performances during the second stage of the 2017 Archery World Cup June 6-11 in Antalya, Turkey, bringing home three gold medals, two silvers and a bronze.

The Archery World Cup, organized by the World Archery Federation since 2006, consists of four tournaments in as many countries. At the conclusion of the events, the top eight performers in each competition category advance to the Archery World Cup Final, which this year is taking place Sept. 2-3 in Rome.

In Antalya, the Taiwan team claimed first place in the compound men’s individual, recurve women’s team and recurve mixed team categories, while also bagging a silver and bronze in the recurve women’s as well as a silver for the compound mixed team.

Chen Hsiang-hsuan claimed his first-ever gold medal for Taiwan by defeating American Steve Anderson 144-141 in the compound category. This was also the first time Taiwan took first place in the discipline at the Archery World Cup.

“This is like a dream,” the 21-year-old said after claiming victory, adding that he never thought he would be standing in an arena competing in the Archery World Cup. Anderson, his opponent, congratulated Chen as well as the Taiwan team’s progress in the compound archery category, according to event organizers.

Tan Ya-ting, ranked world No. 6 in the recurve women’s category by the archery federation, along with Le Chien-ying and Peng Chia-mao won the recurve women’s team title, defeating the Japanese squad in straight sets for a final score of 6-0. The organizers praised their performance, saying it confirmed the group’s status as one of the top women’s teams in the world.

Taiwan’s third gold medal, in the mixed team recurve category, was earned by Peng and Wei Chun-heng, who is ranked world No. 8 in the discipline. They defeated the French team 5-3.

The Switzerland-based World Archery Federation, founded in 1931, is the sport’s international governing body. The organization consists of more than 160 member associations and is endorsed by the International Olympic Committee.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=10&post=116718)