MEDELLIN, CO – Official competition for the Canadian recurve team in Medellin kicked off today with the qualification rounds. After the last couple of days of practice, the Canadian team was ready to step up to the shooting line this afternoon.
On the men’s side, Devaang Gupta was the highest-qualifying Canadian and with a score of 667, he landed in 26th place. In his first elimination round, he will face off against Mengqi Li of China, who qualified in 39th place. Eric Peters was only four points behind with 663 and is in the 36th spot. His first opponent will be 29th-ranked Moritz Wieser from Germany. Crispin Duenas, the third male archer on the team, finished the qualification round with a final score of 656, which means that he qualifies in 54th place and will face Chih-Chun Tang of Taipei in the first round of individual elimination rounds. The first round of eliminations will take place on Friday, June 16 at 2:13 p.m. local time (3:13 p.m. ET).
At the end of 72 arrows, Kristine Esebua ended with a final score of 660, which means that she is the 14th-ranked female archer in qualifications. Her first opponent will be Ezgi Basaran of Turkey, who ranked in 51st place following the conclusion of the qualification round. Stephanie Barrett ended the qualification round in 57th place, with a total score of 624. When the individual elimination rounds begin, she will shoot off against Zhiyun Xu of China, who ranked 8th. Virginie Chénier scored 616 points, allowing her to move forward in the competition with a placing of 63rd. She will face off against Misun Choi of Korea as her first opponent; all of the Canadian women’s first elimination round matches will also take place on Friday at 2:13 p.m. local time (3:13 p.m. ET).
In the team competition, the men’s team of Gupta, Peters, and Duenas’ scores totaled 1986 points, which means that they land 13th among the field. The team will face off against the group from Belgium, who ranked 20th; the match will happen tomorrow, July 15 at 9:15 a.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET). The women’s team competition will see the Canadians, Esebua, Barrett, and Chénier in the bracket, with a 15th-ranked qualification and 1900 points. The team will go up against Great Britain for their first match, who landed in 18th place after qualifications. The first arrow will be shot at 9:45 a.m. local time (10:45 a.m. ET) tomorrow. The Canadian mixed team of Gupta and Esebua will also see competition over the next coming days, with a ranking of 11th and a combined score of 1327. Puerto Rico will be the mixed team’s first opponent; the match will happen on Friday morning at 9:15 a.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET).
“We are in preparation for the World Championships in Berlin next month. We have some short term goals for the current World Cup in Colombia. But we also use this event to grind our way through some personal challenges we have to overcome in order to be the best we can at the Worlds,” says Ron van der Hoff, Interim National Coach. “Today was the first challenge of the week during the ranking round. First of all, a compliment to Kristine for ranking 14th in a field of 84 and Devaang for shooting a personal best of 667.”
“As coaches we push the archers a lot on the ‘not letting down’. Although this might be a simple decision to make, it is actually very challenging to do as one’s mind starts thinking about scenarios that might happen. We are proud to see the archers go through their shot routines the way they should. Accepting the short term challenges for a better long term outcome. We know this strategy is the best one going forward. We will now focus on tomorrow’s team events and look forward to making another step in the right direction.”
The competition continues tomorrow with the men’s and women’s team competition, followed by the mixed team elimination rounds and the individual matches on Friday. Finals will be shot on Saturday, for both team and individual competitions.
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For more information, please contact:
Zoe Meil, Communications & Safe Sport Coordinator
(613) 260-2113 ext. 3