The individual women’s W1 gold went to the world number one, Czechia’s Sarka Pultar Musilova, who beat another familiar face on the circuit, Isabel Fernandez Jimenez of Spain, 134-129.
She would be another three medal winner today, although the Czechia mixed team of Musilova and David Drahoninsky however didn’t really get close to China in the final, and were comprehensively outscored 146-139.
Musilova was also part of the women’s team with Tereza Brandtlova that took bronze at the expense of Türkiye, meaning she leaves Gwangju with a full suite of medals: gold, silver and bronze.
“I didn’t expect to win three medals and the whole collection. If anyone had told me that, I would have sent them to a mental hospital,” said Musilova.
There was national pride in evidence, after a good meet for the Czechia team. “We’ll leave here with pride that the work we are doing is excellent and, above all, that it leads to success. I think that this is not only for us, but actually for the whole Czech Republic,” she said.
China didn’t have it all their own way, with Wang Liya beaten for individual bronze by Musilova’s teammate Brandtlova. Wang was also part of the women’s doubles team with Cen Mengkan that lost a disastrous gold final to Korea, 140-122 with Wang shooting a three in the second end followed by a four in the third.
Indeed, Korea were perhaps the biggest winners of the day, winning all their team finals matches and finally delivering a world gold medal to the 65-year-old Kim Ok Geum, after a dogged international career lasting over a decade.
The competition concludes with the recurve finals on Sunday afternoon.
