OLYMPICS/Taiwan clinches full archery qualification for Paris Olympics

Taipei, June 16 (CNA) Taiwan will be able to participate in every archery discipline at the 2024 Olympics following the clutch performances of Taiwan's men's and women's teams at a final qualifying in Turkey on Friday and Saturday.

Needing to finish in the top three in the 46-country men's field at the 2024 Final World Qualification Tournament on Saturday, Taiwan's men's team finished second to finalize the Paris participation puzzle for archery, usually one of Taiwan's stronger Olympic disciplines.

Seven teams had already qualified for the Paris men's event entering the weekend, leaving only three qualifying spots available, while six women's teams had qualified previously, leaving four open spots up for grabs.

The men's team of Tang Chih-chun (湯智鈞), the only holdover from the team that won silver for Taiwan at the Tokyo Games in 2021, Tai Yu-hsuan (戴宇軒), and Lin Zih-siang (林子翔), nearly flamed out early.

Up 3-1 against Slovenia in the round of 16 match, Taiwan only managed a 50 in the next six-arrow round, well short of Slovenia's 57, allowing Slovenia to even the first-to-five match at 3-3.

The next round was in the balance after four arrows, but Slovenia finished with a 7 and 6 while Taiwan shot two 10's, giving Taiwan a 5-3 win.

They then beat Bangladesh 6-2 in the quarterfinals and Germany 6-0 in the semifinals to guarantee a top-two finish and an Olympic berth, before losing to Mexico 5-1 in the finals.

On Friday, the women's team finished fourth to secure its berth in Paris, but only barely, coming back from a 4-2 deficit to beat Slovenia 5-4 in the round of 16 before later topping Ukraine 5-1 to reach the semifinals.

Once there, archers Lei Chien-ying (雷千瑩), Chiu Yi-ching (邱意晴) and Li Tsai-chi (李彩綺) fell to China and then lost to the United Kingdom in the bronze medal match.

Still, Taiwan clinched the full complement of spots at the Paris Olympics, with three competitors each in the individual men's and women's competitions and spots in the men's team, women's team and mixed team events.

Only France (as the host), Great Britain, Mexico and South Korea have also secured the full range of spots in Paris to date, according to Wikipedia.

Taiwan's archers will remain in the Turkish city to participate in the upcoming Antalya 2024 Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 3 scheduled for June 18-23.