This will be 49th World Archery Championships starting October 15 and ending October 22, 2017. World Archery or FITA was formed in 1931 in Lviv, Ukraine. At that time, Lviv was part of Poland as Lwow. It has been 76 years since then and there have been 46 editions of the event so far. This year’s edition is in Mexico City with around 400 archers from different parts of the world participating in the championships in 2017. The venue is Campo Marte and Zocalo, Mexico City. In total there would be 376 athletes out of which 201 are for recurve and 175 for the compound. Interestingly these 376 athletes will be competing for only 10 medals in individual and team sections. That will include recurve men, recurve women, compound women, compound men, mixed team recurve, and mixed team compound. It is definitely going to be an event of repute.
Pic: Kim Woojin Source: WorldArchery.org
Let us now look at the probable stakeholders for medals at World Archery Championships at Campo Marte. In Team Recurve Men, Mixed Team Compound, and Mixed Team Recurve, Korea is the top contenders. Russia seems to have an upper hand in Recurve Women Team event. While Iran has the highest possibility to win Compound Men Team event, it is Ukraine that holds the highest probability in Compound Women Team Event. Similarly, when we talk about Individual championships, Kim Woojin and Ki Bo Bae from Korea seem to be defending champions in Recurve Men and Recurve Women Individual events respectively. In Compound Men Individual event, Stephan Hansen from Denmark is the most favorite. Finally, in Compound Women Individual event it is Kim Yunhee from Korea. In my opinion, in any sports event, every contestant is a winner in its own vicinity keeping medals and trophies apart for a while.
World Archery Championships will have 376 athletes this year
Pic: Rick McKinney Source: WorldArchery.org
Finally, some facts about World Archery Championships. Kim Woojin of Korea is winner of 2011 and 2015 championships. He is also Hyundai Acthery World Cup Champion. Archery, in fact, was included to the Olympic Games in 1972. So far, the most successful athelete is Rick McKinney who had gold in 1977, 1983, and 1985. He represents United States of America at Archery. Interestingly, in the last three World Archery Championships in the Compound Men’s section, all the winners were under 21 (i.e. juniors) at the time of taking the title. They were Christopher Perkins represending Canada, was 19 in 2011, Mike Schloesser representing Netherlands, was 19 in 2013 and Stephan Hansen representing Denmark, was 20 in 2015. The schedule is as below:
Schedule
15 October: Official practice
16 October: Qualification
17 October: Qualification and recurve team eliminations
18 October: Individual eliminations
19 October: Individual and compound team eliminations
20 October: Mixed team eliminations
21 October: Compound finals
22 October: Recurve finals
