Li Jiaman swept past the competition in Tlaxcala 2024 to win her maiden Hyundai Archery World Cup Final.
She defeated India’s Deepika Kumari in straight sets in the gold medal match, 6-0, who has now been the World Cup runner up on five different occasions.
Li meanwhile, won the finale of archery’s premier international circuit on her first attempt which features eight of the best archers from each event (compound and recurve) per gender who qualify either from winning one of three World Cup stages in the year or their world ranking.
“The first match was relatively tense and the last two felt like a little bit more of a challenge,” said Li on her differences inbetween matches. “I was still doing my best but I wasn’t as nervous as I was in the first match.
“I was just trying to get the best arrows out. I wasn’t thinking too much about winning or losing.”
The world number 16 qualified through her ranking and showed touches of a true champion throughout the afternoon session.
Angela Ruiz was her first opponent in the quarter finals, the home pick for host nation Mexico, with the 18 year old having nothing to lose and the Chinese archer all to gain in front of a patriotic Mexican audience.
And although it was not smooth sailing, as Ruiz dropped a perfect score to take the fourth end and make it to a fifth set, Li was not bothered by the pressure as she shot a fine 29 to disappoint the home fans.
Once the Paris 2024 women’s team silver medallist got into a rhythm on the shooting line, her strong, quick drawing style worked its magic as it has done throughout 2024 as she dropped a 28, three 29s and a 30 to take out the Olympic women’s team gold medallist Jeon Hunyoung, 6-2.
The gold medal match was one of pure intrigue. Li and Kumari are well known to be two of the best archers in recurve women but neither have ever won an individual major honour as big as a Hyundai World Cup nor had they faced one another.
To complement this, 2010 Commonwealth Games champion Kumari had also performed strongly in the quarter and semi finals as she thrashed Li’s Chinese teammate Yang Xiaolei 6-0 before knocking out eventual bronze medallist Alejandra Valencia on her home turf of Mexico.
There was little competitiveness shown in this clash though as Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games bronze medallist Li dismantled her comfortably in just three ends including a perfect 30 in the second.
“It’s an honour to be part of this World Cup, to win this World Cup. Now, I’m going to work even harder after that,” she added.
The visibly disappointed Kumari could not match the grouping of her Chinese counterpart as she still yearns for that World Cup Final gold which has eluded her now on six different attempts.
Valencia was gutted to not be in the top two in her home country, but she still came away from Tlaxcala with a bronze medal after beating Jeon 6-2.
In a high quality encounter, Valencia seemingly saved her best for the bronze final as she shot only one eight in the entire match, the rest either 10s or nines, with her 30 and 29 scores in the last two ends of the match sealing her place on the podium.
Sunday’s action concluded the 2024 Hyundai World Cup with the first stage of the 2025 edition to start in April in Haines City, USA.
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