SHANGHAI, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Top two seeds South Korea and China have booked their places in the women's recurve team gold medal match at the 2025 Archery World Cup after a commanding day in Thursday's elimination rounds.
South Korea, who skipped the season-opening World Cup in Florida to prioritize their national trials, made a strong return to international competition. Olympic champion Lim Si-hyeon marked her comeback in style, topping the individual qualification round on Wednesday. On Thursday, she teamed up with An San and Kang Chae-young to edge out a resilient Turkey side 5-4 in a tense quarterfinal match affected by sporadic winds. The trio then eased past Chinese Taipei 5-1 to secure their place in the final. Chinese Taipei went on to claim bronze.
China's lineup - Li Jiaman, Zhu Jingyi and Huang Yuwei - entered the event fresh from their triumph in Florida. Competing on home soil at the Yuanshen Sports Center, they rallied to defeat Italy 5-4 in the quarterfinals, before dominating Mexico 6-0 to reach the title match.
"The result was satisfying overall," said 20-year-old Huang, who made her team debut last month. "We faced some challenges and made mistakes, but the key was that we adjusted quickly. That's something we'll need to keep doing in future matches."
Looking ahead to the final, 18-year-old Zhu remained composed yet confident. "South Korea is a strong team, but they're not unbeatable. We're not afraid - we have what it takes to beat them," she said.
Li, a member of the Chinese squad that lost to South Korea in the team final at the Paris Olympics, anticipated a high-caliber showdown while hoping for a different outcome this time.
"We'll treat them like any other opponent. If we keep shooting 10s, the pressure will be on them," she said. "I hope they shoot well, because we want to win through our own strength."
In the men's recurve team event, China exited in the quarterfinals with a 6-2 loss to South Korea, though not without putting up a fight. Wang Yan, Li Zhongyuan and Kao Wenchao took the opening set 57-55 against Olympic gold medalists Kim Woo-jin, Lee Woo-seok and Kim Je-deok. But despite loud support from the home crowd, the Chinese trio couldn't sustain their momentum, as the South Koreans responded with scores of 58, 60 and 59 in the following sets.
"I think we brought out the best in ourselves," said Wang. "There's a lot we can learn from South Korea - especially their ability to stay composed and consistent under pressure. We took two points off them this time; next time, it might be more. One day, we'll beat them."
South Korea went on to defeat the United States 5-3 in the semifinals and will meet France in the gold medal match. The Americans bounced back to claim bronze with a 5-3 victory over India.
The Shanghai World Cup continues Friday with the recurve individual and mixed team elimination rounds. Enditem
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