It was close, but just off target for Canada at the 2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships as the red and white contingent barely missed out on Olympic quotas despite a solid showing in men’s recurve in s’-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Results (2019 Hyundai World Archery Championships): Results

In the men’s recurve individual competition, Eric Peters of Ottawa and Crispin Duenas, a three-time Olympian from Scarborough, Ont., both placed ninth in a strong field of 200 competitors, just shy of advancing to a shoot-off for the chance to secure Olympic berths for Team Canada.

The pair then teamed up with Vancouver’s Brian Maxwell for the men’s team event and again finished ninth, one spot shy of the standard for Tokyo 2020.

“Our men actually performed well, so we are collectively very disappointed in the final results and our inability to qualify any quota spots for the Tokyo Games at this first qualification event,” said Alan Brahmst, Archery Canada High Performance Director. “The individual results [from some countries] on the men’s side were completely unexpected in terms of the top 8 and finalists, which denied any ninth-ranked individuals an ability to shoot off as no spots were left. In the team event, top countries also failed to qualify, such as Italy, the USA, France, Turkey, along with Canada. Based on total cumulative score, we finished fifth amongst the last 16.

“We simply came up short, and unfortunately the format worked against us this time. Now we carry on, build off a good performance and the hard work over the past couple of years and focus on the next qualifying opportunity at the Lima Pan Am Games.”

The next qualifying opportunities for Tokyo 2020 are at the upcoming Pan American Games, which run from July 26 to August 11 in Lima, Peru (1 individual male, 1 individual female, 1 mixed team quotas available), followed by the Continental Qualifier in Mexico next March and a final event connected to the 2020 World Cup in Berlin.

In his first world championship appearance at the senior level, Peters, a former Youth Olympics bronze medallist, was simply stellar, placing 10^th in the qualification round thanks to a personal-best score of 683 before cruising to 6-0, 7-1 and 6-2 victories in his first three ranking matches. His superb run came to an end in the fourth round, where he dropped a close-fought 4-6 decision against seventh-seeded Tang Chih-Chun of Chinese Taipei, losing by a single point in the final set.

After qualifying 11^th with a 681 score, Duenas was equally impressive in his first three sudden-death duels, posting 6-0, 6-4 and 6-0 wins. The national team veteran was then defeated 0-6 by sixth-seeded Mauro Nespoli of Italy, who will play for bronze on Saturday. The final score doesn’t reflect how close the confrontation was as Duenas lost every set by a single point.

Rounding out the Canadian representation in individual men’s recurve was Maxwell, who lost his opening ranking match after qualifying 73^rd (657 score) en route to a 57^th-place finish.

In the men’s recurve team event, Peters, Duenas and Maxwell achieved a Team Canada cumulative record score of 2021 to clinch sixth place ahead of the ranking phase. Unfortunately, following a first-round bye, the trio lost a heartbreaking 3-5 round-of-16 decision to 11^th-seeded India, which went on to qualify for Sunday’s gold-medal final.

Other recurve results for Canada in s’-Hertogenbosch included: Virginie Chénier of Laval, Que., 106^th in women’s individual (613 score – missed cut); Tania Edwards of Aurora, Ont., 129^th in women’s individual (600 – missed cut); Peters and Chénier 32^nd in mixed team (1296 – missed cut).

Taylor, Maude lead way in compound

In compound, which is not part of the Olympic program, Austin Taylor of Winnipeg and Fiona Maude of North Bay, Ont., had the best individual performances for Canada with 33^rd-place finishes in men’s and women’s competition, respectively.

After qualifying 44^th with a 699 score, Taylor won his first ranking match before dropping a heartbreaker against Kazakhstan’s Akbarali Karabayev in the second round, 148-148, 9-10 in a shoot-off.

Robert Nott of Ilderton, Ont., also advanced after qualifying 46^th (699) but lost 143-145 to New Zealand’s Riku Van Tonder in the first ranking round. Veteran Brendan von Richter of Port Moody, B.C., rounded out Canada’s representation on the men’s side and missed the cut after placing 119^th (676).

In women’s individual action, all three Canadians moved on to the ranking stage with Fiona McClean of Belle River, Ont., leading the way in 66^th position (676), followed by Maude in 68^th (675) and Katie Roth of Guelph, Ont., in 85^th (662).

Of the group, Maude was the only one who managed to reach the second round, thanks to a 137-137, 10-9 shoot-off win over Kazakhstan’s Adel Zhexenbinova. Her run ended with a 137-143 loss to 20^th-seeded Paige Pearce of the USA, who will battle for gold on Sunday.

McClean and Roth both ended up in 57^th position.

The three Canadian women had a solid showing in team competition, finishing ninth after qualifying 20^th with a score of 2013. The trio upset 13^th-seeded South Africa 226-223 in its first head-to-head duel before losing in the round of 16 by 229-232 against No. 4 Turkey, which will play for bronze on Saturday.

Canada missed the cut in both the men’s (25^th – 2074 score) and mixed (29^th – 1375) team events.