Seo Mingi dominantly poled in the recurve men’s event at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games on Tuesday as he did in Chengdu two years ago.
Mingi dropped 683 in Essen – six points off his personal best of 689 – to grab the top seed out of the 86 participants in the discipline with the closest 72-arrow score behind him at 669 by fellow Korean Kim Seonwoo.
An astonishing 14-point gap between the first and second seeds.
It’s a familiar tale for the 23 year old archer – who is a recent graduate from Keimyung University in physical education and sport – after he grabbed top spot at the Chengdu 2021 Summer World University Games and went on to win the whole competition in China, his sole individual international medal to date thus far.
Coincidentally he also shot 683 in the Chengdu qualifications with the distance between him and the second seed at seven points then – still a sizeable one.
The fact Mingi was able to double that gap on Tuesday amidst hefty winds in Germany – as they were in the Arnhem 2025 European Grand Prix Leg 2 today – whilst World Cup medallists such as Trenton Cowles and Tang Chih-Chun wrestled with the conditions reminded the archery world that Korea’s seamless conveyor belt of talent in recurve really does never end.
The defending University Games champion has been an understudy to Paris 2024 Olympic Games gold medallists Kim Woojin, Lee Woo Seok and Kim Je Deok this season in the recently concluded World Cup stages and even finished above the latter in Shanghai and Antalya‘s qualifications – the second and third stages.
They however are Korea’s trio for the Gwangju 2025 Hyundai World Archery Championships, but should Mingi emerge victorious in Rhine-Ruhr he would have two University Games golds under his belt.
