Naomi Folkard put up an excellent showing at the Berlin Open International Archery Meeting last weekend to separate the Korean Ladies and finish in fourth place.

This indoor archery event attracted approximately 500 archers amongst whom were some of the world’s top competitors, including three top Korean ladies.  It took the form of an 18 metre FITA ranking round (60 arrows at a small 3 spot face over 18 metres), followed by head to head knock out matches (5 sets of 3 arrows, with 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.

Folkard scored a superb 587 out of 600 in the ranking round, which put her in 3rd place, very closely behind Jang (Korea) 588 and Chun (Korea) also 587.  The top 32 qualifiers then went into elimination rounds, matches being determined by ranking. In her first match Folkard beat Katharina Freimann (Germany) 6 – 0.  This brought her into a closer 1/8 round match against fellow Olympian, Pia Lionetti (Italy).  Shooting consistently well Folkard won 6 – 4. Her quarter final match was against German Olympian, Elena Richter, fresh from her victory in the previous round over the great Natalia Valeeva (Italy).  Again this was a close match with Folkard coming out on top 6 – 4.  Folkard’s semi-final match was against Chun (Korea), but she could only take one set from Chun to lose 6 – 2.  Her bronze medal match was against the top qualifying Korean Jang. Although Folkard shot well with ends of 29, 29, 28,  Jang put in a storming finish with 3 perfect ends of 30.

The third Korean lady was knocked out by team mate Jang in the quarter final round, giving Unruh (Germany) an entry into a semi final match against Jang, which she narrowly won 6-4.  The final result was therefore 1 Chun, 2 Unruh, 3 Jang and 4 Folkard.

Folkard, who has been training hard over the Autumn with Rio in view, said after the event: ‘I am really pleased with my performance in Berlin.  I have made significant changes in technique since the Olympics, and it is now beginning to come together more consistently’.