Chinese archers grab silver, bronze at World Cup

CHINA pocketed a silver and a bronze medal at the 2018 Archery World Cup which closed its first stage in Shanghai yesterday.

After the qualifying and knockout rounds at Pudong’s Yuanshen Sports Center during the weekdays, the weekend finals were moved to the downtown Lujiazui area to get more public audiences involved.

An Qixuan from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region did China proud by advancing to the women’s individual recurve final, where she lost out in a close battle to South Korea’s world No. 1 Chang Hye-jin yesterday.

The national women’s team also grabbed a bronze medal in the recurve team competition to add to An’s silver for China.

Half of the Chinese team members, including 17-year-old An, were youngsters, as the national team used the Shanghai event as a warm-up for the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia.

It was the 10th year Shanghai hosted the event, which saw participants from 46 countries and regions. Next to the finals venue, organizers set up an archery experience zone to encourage locals to take part in the sport

“Archery is becoming a choice of a lot of white collar workers and students,” said Tao Luna, former Olympic champion and deputy director of the Shanghai Shooting and Archery Sport Center. “We used the opportunity of hosting the annual World Cup to promote the sport.”

Tao said Shanghai currently has more than 10 archery clubs with 5,000 active members. Amateur archers can also take part in tests organized by the Shanghai Archery Association to gauge their competitive level.