{"id":3234,"date":"2025-09-14T10:08:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T02:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=3234"},"modified":"2025-09-14T10:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T02:08:04","slug":"kang-chaeyoung-takes-koreas-only-gold-in-gwangju","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/kang-chaeyoung-takes-koreas-only-gold-in-gwangju\/","title":{"rendered":"Kang Chaeyoung takes Korea\u2019s only gold in Gwangju"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was no fairytale ending for Gwangju native An San, as it was Kang Chaeyoung who claimed Korea\u2019s only gold medal of the World Archery Championships in the recurve women\u2019s event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Champion An San had the crowd firmly behind her throughout the day, with cheers rising in volume every time her arrows landed on the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those cheers turned to sighs as her semifinal slipped away, capped by a 6-4 loss to teammate Kang. The latter then went on to defeat China\u2019s Zhu Jingyi in the gold medal match, securing her first world title after finishing runner-up at the 2019 edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYesterday I was a bit disappointed because we couldn\u2019t get the gold medal in the women\u2019s team match, but today I had to focus on myself,\u201d said Kang after a long run of interviews at 5.18 Democracy Square. \u201cIt went well and I played without any regrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest, physically I was more ready in 2019, but the result was different. This year I finally get the gold medal and I\u2019m really, really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the second end [of my semifinal], the score was 0-4, so I was almost losing but I could bounce back and win the match and I finally got the gold medal. An San did very well in the bronze medal match, so I\u2019m really happy for her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An San had been the story all week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representing Korea in her hometown, she topped qualification with a personal best of 692 and helped set new mixed team and women\u2019s team world records. All signs pointed to the ending she had dreamed of since Gwangju was announced as host in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two 6-2 wins over China\u2019s Huang Yuwei and Li Jiaman \u2013 both members of the gold medal women\u2019s team at Central Florida 2025 \u2013 suggested that destiny was on her side. After struggling for individual wins at Hyundai Archery World Cup stages this year, the 24-year-old looked back to her Tokyo 2020 best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But her Olympic teammate had other ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kang\u2019s nickname, The Destroyer<\/em> \u2013 earned when she became the first woman to break 690 points across 72 arrows \u2013 proved fitting as she crushed her compatriot\u2019s hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An San had led 4-0 in their semifinal before the home support became a distraction. She admitted afterwards that the raised noise after the second end pulled her out of focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t focus on myself, but after the match I tried to not care about losses, just thinking about myself,\u201d she said, explaining how she managed the distraction better in her 6-4 bronze medal victory over Diananda Choirunisa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A windless, overcast day in southern Korea made for near-perfect shooting conditions, but the invaluable archery element of single-mindedness deserted An San \u2013 something that the legendary Ki Bo Bae<\/a>, watching on from the commentary booth, had in abundance during her heyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London 2012 Olympic Champion has been providing Korean commentary all week \u2013 and there was no better audience for Kang to showcase her talent in front of. She shot four 29s and a perfect 30 against Zhu in the final, winning 7-3, even if she hadn\u2019t realised who was watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even know she [Ki Bo Bae] was watching my game, but after the games, during the ceremony, I noticed,\u201d said Kang. \u201cI\u2019m really happy that she was watching and showing up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final ranking: Recurve women<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Kang Chae Young<\/a>, Korea \"KOR<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Zhu Jingyi<\/a>, China <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. An San<\/a>, Korea \"KOR<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Diananda Choirunisa<\/a>, Indonesia <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Lim Sihyeon<\/a>, Korea \"KOR<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Li Jiaman<\/a>, China <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Anastasia Pavlova<\/a>, Ukraine <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Alejandra Valencia<\/a>, Mexico <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There was no fairytale ending for Gwangju native An San, as it was Kang Chaeyoung who claimed Korea\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,7],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-3234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-newsbeat","tag-archery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed.jpg",1140,760,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed.jpg",1140,760,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed.jpg",1140,760,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a> Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Kang-Chaeyoung-upsets-An-San_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3236,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3234\/revisions\/3236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}