Archer's world record gets recognized

Ki Bo-bae / Courtesy of GUOC

By Kwon Ji-youn

Ki Bo-bae effortlessly shattered an archery world record in a women’s individual recurve preliminary match, Saturday, but getting it recognized was not as easy.

Ki shot a combined 686 points out of 720 to better Park Sung-hyun’s record of 682 points set in 2004. But the Gwangju Universiade Organizing Committee (GUOC) was unable to confirm whether it would be recognized as an official world record.

Local media then published reports claiming the achievement would remain unofficial _ only records set at the Olympics, the Asian Games and respective world championships are taken into account, they said. A GUOC official said that because the Universiade is supervised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) and not by the respective world governing bodies, records broken in Gwangju cannot become official international records. “The Universiade is more about bringing youth from around the world together in harmony,” the official said.

But on Wednesday, the GUOC did a flip and said athletes who break records in certain events will get their achievements certified. At a briefing, GUOC Press Secretary You Ji-hyun said though archery is not a core sport at the Universiade, it is a competition that weighs on the athletes’ world rankings, and therefore all records set at the University Games are considered official by the World Archery Federation (WA). The WA requires all world-ranking events to assign at least two internationally approved judges to the panel for it to count, and at the Universiade there were four. The GUOC said the women’s archery team’s record in the ranking round was also officially acknowledged as a world record. Ki, Choi Mi-sun and Kang Chae-young amassed 2,038 points in the 70m round on Wednesday to break another world record and claim silver.

Athletes competing in swimming and athletics will also get their Universiade records approved by their respective international governing bodies. The WA did so in a post on its website titled, “Ki Bo-bae breaks decade-old world record” on Saturday.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) agreed in April it will acknowledge Universiade records, as does the International Association of Athletics Federations, which evaluated and approved the track at the Gwangju Universiade Main Stadium before the multi-sport event’s opening ceremony on July 3.

But shooters will not get world records officially recognized, should they set any. The International Shooting Sport Federation does not officially accept records set at the Universiade.

“It’s up to the individual governing bodies to decide whether they will recognize a Universiade record as a world record,” a GUOC official said. “But because most do, lots of athletes looking to make Olympic debuts soon make appearances at the Universiade and raise competition standards.”