Paris, Sept 23, 2013: The most consistent archer over this year’s four World Cup stages, YUN Ok Hee confirms her supremacy and returns to the top, three years after her first victory in the World Cup Final.
YUN Ok Hee returned to the top of the recurve women’s division three years after winning the World Cup Final in Edinburgh. Olympic team champion and individual bronze medallist at Beijing 2008, she was left out of the London Olympic Games, but made a successful come-back as the most consistent archers of the 2013 season. Following her victories at the Shanghai and Wroclaw stages, YUN was the top qualifier for this World Cup Final.
This morning in quarter-finals, she easily qualified over the archer from host country France, Cyrielle COTRY. After a brief pause in individual competition – dedicated to winning the mixed team gold medal final paired with OH Jin Hyek – YUN returned to the field for the semi-finals against CUI Yuanyuan (CHN), who defeated her easily in the final at the Antalya World Cup. Today YUN took her revenge, with a 7-3 victory, and advanced to the gold medal match against Deepika KUMARI (IND).
Only 19 years old, KUMARI is one of the finest archers in the world. Since her first appearance on the World Cup circuit in 2010, she has always qualified for the Final, and won silver medals in 2011 and 2012. KUMARI owed her qualification to this final to earlier victories over the two Mexican competitors: Olympic silver medallist Aída ROMAN in the quarter-finals, followed by Alejandra VALENCIA in the semi-finals.
Defeated by YUN last month in Wroclaw, KUMARI started the final with 10-10-10 and soon led 3-1. However she let down in the third set, running out of time which resulted in a zero. The mental advantage now belonged to YUN, who came back from trailing 1-3 to winning 6-4.
With her win, YUN becomes the first woman to win two World Cup Finals in the recurve division. Additionally, the Shanghai and Wroclaw victories she achieved this season bring her total of World Cup stage victories to six, making her the most successful recurve woman archer in the history of the World Cup.
The bronze medal was disputed between 21-year-old CUI Yuanyuan and 19-year-old Alejandra VALENCIA, who were both shooting for a first World Cup Final medal. It was VALENCIA, the most experienced of the two with two World Cup Finals behind her, who took the first set. However CUI, the Antalya champion, came back from trailing 0-2 to leading 4-2, after which two tied sets gave her a victory 6-4 and a well-deserved bronze medal in her first international season. —- World Archery Communication
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