Belek Antalya 2013 in facts and figures

Lausanne – Oct 10, 2013: The last arrow of the Belek, Antalya World Championships was shot two days ago, marking the conclusion of the 2013 senior outdoor season. The event was the most watched, followed and, in many ways, exciting yet.

The 449 participating athletes came from 69 countries, of which 248 were men and 193 were women. The World Championships, an event that usually features a good share of surprises, brought unexpected victories for young archers Maja JAGER (DEN), in the recurve women’s event, and Mike SCHLOESSER (NED), in the compound men’s final.

With 10 new world champions crowned, we can recap some of the highlights from the 47th World Archery Championships:

Results

All five continents were represented, and athletes from four of them took medals home.

30 medals were awarded to 15 different National Federations.

Denmark, Colombia and The Netherlands won their first ever World Championship titles.

Both mixed team titles were successfully defended. Top Korean pair KI Bo Bae and OH Jin Hyek won the recurve competition, which KI won with IM Dong Hyun in 2011. Italy won the compound competition, with the same double act that took gold last time: Marcella TONIOLI and Sergio PAGNI.

France beat Korea in a recurve team match for the first time in history. The French team of Thomas FAUCHERON, Gaël PREVOST and Jean-Charles VALLADONT rose to the almost-invincible Korean armada, beating IM Dong Hyun, LEE Seungyun and OH Jin Hyek in a bronze-medal match that came down to the final arrow. The last two times these teams met was in the previous two world championships’ gold medal finals. This French victory sent the Korean recurve men home without a medal in the team event for the first time in many years.

Renowned visitors

Twelve IOC Members attended the event including the new IOC President, one IOC Vice-President, one Executive Board Member and, of course, the World Archery President.

The season now continues with the World 3D Championships in Sassari (ITA), the World Youth Championships in Wuxi (CHN) and the Para World Championships in Bangkok (THA). The start of the Indoor World Cup season will follow in November and December, with its first two events in Morocco and Singapore. —- World Archery Communication