Berlin, GER – The 2023 World Archery Championships is underway in Berlin, Germany beginning today with the Qualification rounds in both Recurve and Compound archery. The event serves as a qualification event for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France and for Canada it was an important beginning to the qualification process for our recurve program. Compound archery is not yet a part of the Olympic programme but is under consideration for LA 2028.
Despite challenging conditions, both the recurve and compound men’s teams secured a place in the team elimination rounds, with the recurve team capturing 10th place in a field of 47 countries. The team of Eric Peters (ON), Crispin Duenas (ON) and Devaang Gupta (ON) will proceed to the 1/12 Team eliminations to face off against Spain on Wednesday morning with the intention of meeting Turkey, who have already been pre-seeded into the ⅛ and ultimately advance to the ¼ finals by the end of the day..
“The recurve men performed to their ability,” said National Coach Advisor, Ron van der hoff. “After a poor start in challenging conditions they worked their way up to 10th place in the Team ranking.” He continued on to say that they showed “impressive work and this gives us a good starting point for the team matches. We will be focusing on debriefs now and find out what actions we can take to improve our chances tomorrow during the team events.“
For the recurve women, the competition proved to be a challenging day, with the team just missing the top 24 and the opportunity to proceed into eliminations. “As a team we didn’t perform the way we wanted to,” said the team coach Soha Mahmoud, Canada’s Jr National Coach. “Not making the cut by only 3 points is hard to take. But we will have to start focusing on the mixed team event and individual finals.”
The compound competition which took place in the afternoon saw further challenges in weather, but the team were able to hold their place in the top 24. The team of Cameron Palichuk (AB), Tristan Moran (SK) and Andrew Fagan (ON) will face Italy Wednesday afternoon. “The compound men struggled with the wind right from the start,” said team coach Duncan Crawford. “A big blast of heavy wind and rain toward the end of the round didn’t help either. But the men persevered and all three are qualified for the individual matches as well as the Men’s team event. We are looking forward to stronger results tomorrow.”
The recurve athletes qualified to advance into the mixed team competition, with the exact team composition to be determined by the team and coaching staff. Crispin Duenas, the highest-qualifying of three male recurve archers finished 26th with 659 points, with Eric Peters the next Canadian in 36th with 656 and Devaang Gupta finished 43rd with 656 following tie-break procedures. All three will advance to the eliminations on Thursday. For the female recurve archers, Virginie Chenier (QC) took the top spot for Canada in 52 with a score of 623 and will advance to the eliminations on Thursday followed closely by Kristine Esebua in 55th with 623 who also will advance. Stephanie Barrett (ON) landed in 114th and will not move into the elimination rounds.
Cameron Palichuk, who is participating in his third international event with these championships, scored 688 for 51st place, with Tristan Spicer Moran shooting a 681 for 70th position and Andrew Fagan finishing 98th with 668.
The competition will continue with the team and mixed team elimination rounds tomorrow and then individual elimination rounds will take place on Thursday.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Karl Balisch
Executive Director
kbalisch@archerycanada.ca
//
Event Schedule
Monday, July 31 – Official practice
Tuesday, August 1 – Qualification round
Wednesday, August 2 – Team and mixed team elimination rounds
Thursday, August 3 – Individual elimination rounds
Friday, August 4 – Team finals
Saturday, August 5 – Compound finals
Sunday, August 6 – Recurve finals