The official website of the Indoor Archery World Cup in Singapore has released the participants list and I’m glad to see that the event is becoming more and more popular. The number of participant archers almost doubled from last year’s cup in Singapore. Until now, 190 archers have confirmed their participation and, although the official registration deadline was last week, that is a possibility that a few more archers will be joining the event.
The most participants are in the recurve men division, with 79 archers registered under the follwing16 countries/territories: Australia, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, France, Hong Kong, India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, and the USA. All three winners from last year’s Indoor World Cup in Singapore – Hsin Fu Chen (TPE), Aubert Thomas (FRA) and Yotov Ivan (BUL) – will be present, certainly with the intention of maintaining (and improving) their world standing.
I have met Yotov Ivan at the 1st Asia Grand Prix in Bangkok in February 2012 as the coach of the Singapore nation team. I’m looking forward to meeting him again, this time, on the shooting line. The only participant representing Thailand is French archer Alryck Fournet-Fayard, and I’m the only Romanian in any of the divisions.
Photography by Prakit Phananuratana
The recurve women division will see the participation of 31 archers from 8 countries/territories: Australia, Chinese Taipei, France, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka. If numbers stay the same, then all the women recurve archers will automatically qualify for the individual elimination matches in the second day of the competition. In all divisions, the red line is drawn after the 32nd ranked archer.
In the compound men division, there are exactly 60 archers registered. They are representing 15 different countries/territories: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and the USA. Multiple-time world champion and world #1 compound archer Reo Wild (USA) will also be shooting in Singapore and, I suspect, he will win and maybe skip the second stage of the Indoor World Cup in Nimes, France.
There are only 17 archers in the compound women division, shooting for 8 countries/territories: Australia, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Africa. Joanna Chesse (FRA), the champion of Indoor Archery World Cup 2012 will also be in Singapore, working towards another world title.
My feeling is that, this year, all the participants in Singapore will be experienced archers, unlike last year when many beginners from Singapore filled the ranks of the recurve divisions. To avoid this from happening again, the day before the official start of the World Cup, the organizers will host the Singapore Indoor Archery Youth Cup 2012 for archers with ages between 10 and 16, thus giving aspiring archers a chance to shoot in an international event.
6 more days to go!
