Plenty of action worldwide this week, including the third edition of the UCI World Urban Cycling Championships in China. Previews:
● ARCHERY ● Indoor World Series opens in Macau with strong U.S. Compound entries
The six-stage World Archery Indoor World Series will begin this week with the Macau Indoor Open in China. This is competition at 18 m, with the first four tournaments accounting for only 250 points for the winners towards competing in the World Series Final; the final two earn 1,000 each.
Because of this, the fields are fairly small. The men’s Recurve entries include Rio 2016 silver medalist Jean-Charles Valladont (FRA). The women’s Recurve field include Dutch shooter Gabriela Bayardo, who won a Worlds silver this year with Sjef van den Berg in the Mixed Team event. American Khatuna Lorig, trying for a sixth Olympic Games at age 45, is also entered.
The Compound men’s field includes two-time World Indoor champ Reo Wilde of the U.S. and 2018 World Indoor winner Mike Schloesser (NED). The women’s entries include American stars Alexis Ruiz, who won medals in all four outdoor World Cups this year, and Paige Pearce, the 2019 Worlds silver medalist.
Qualifying will be on Saturday with the finals on Sunday. Look for results here.
● BADMINTON ● All five defending champs back for big-money Fuzhou China Open
The 15th edition of the Fuzhou China Open is underway at the Haixa Olympic Sports Center, with a $700,000 prize purse … and therefore, an all-star line-up. The top seeds with their current world rankings:
● Men/Singles: 1. Kento Momota (JPN: 1); 2. Tien-Chen Chou (TPE: 2); 3. Yuqi Shi (CHN: 4).
● Men/Doubles: 1. Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sulkamuljo (INA: 1); 2. Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan (INA: 2); 3. Junhui Li/Yuchen Liu (CHN: 3).
● Women/Singles: 1. Tzu-Ying Tai (TPE: 2); 2. Akane Yamaguchi (JPN: 4); 3. Yufei Chen (CHN: 3).
● Women/Doubles: 1. Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Hagahara (JPN: 1); 2. Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota (JPN: 3); 3. Qingchen Chen/Yifan Jia (CHN: 2).
● Mixed Doubles: 1. Siwei Zheng/Yaqiong Huang (CHN: 1); 2. Yilyu Wang/Dongping Huang (CHN: 2); 3. Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapirsee Taerattanachai (THA: 4).
All five of the defending champions are in: Momota and Chen in Singles, Gideon/Sukamuljo, So-Hee Lee/Seung-Chan Shin (KOR) in women’s Doubles and Zheng/Huang in Mixed.
How big is the prize money? In the Singles divisions, the top four get $49.000-23,800-9,800 (both semifinal losers). In Doubles, it’s $51.800-24.500-9,800 and there are payments on down to the losers in the round of 64. Look for results here.
● CYCLING ● BMX Freestyle Park Worlds in China; second Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow
A busy week in cycling starts with the UCI World Urban Championships in Chengdu (CHN). This is just the third year of this event, which includes one Olympic event: BMX Freestyle Park. In the prior two years:
● Men/2017: 1. Logan Martin (AUS); 2. Alex Coleborn (GBR); 3. Colton Walker (USA)
● Men/2018: 1. Justin Dowell (USA); 2. Kenneth Esquivel (CRC); . Brandon Loupos (AUS).
● Women/2017: 1. Hannah Roberts (USA); 2. Lara Lessmann (GER); 3. Angie Marino (USA).
● Women/2018: 1. Perris Benegas (USA); 2. Marino (USA); 3. Roberts (USA).
Martin and Dowell are expected to be contenders again, but Japan’s Rimu Nakamura and Declan Brooks (GBR) went 1-2 in the just-completed seasonal World Cup.
Roberts won the seasonal World Cup over Benegas, with Charlotte Worthington (GBR) third; Roberts, the amazing Michigan teen, continues to dominate the sport and is the Olympic favorite.
The top two in each gender will lock up qualifying sports for the Tokyo 2020 Games. Look for results here.
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The second UCI Track Cycling World Cup will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, with six British Olympic medal winners expected to make a significant mark on the competition.
British riders Mark Stewart (Points Race) and Matthew Wallis (Omnium) were winners in the season opener in Minsk (BLR), where the big stars were American Jennifer Valente and Italy’s Filippo Ganna.
Valente won the women’s Points Race and Omnium and was part of the American victory in the Team Pursuit. Ganna won the men’s Individual Pursuit and lowered the world record twice in doing so.
Dutch sprinter Harrie Lavreysen won the Sprint, Keirin and was part of the winning Team Sprint trio and fellow Dutch rider Kirsten Wild won the Scratch Race and the Madison, with Amy Pieters.
Look for results here.
● FENCING ● Men’s World Cup season opens with Foil tournament in Bonn
After the women opened the FIE World Cup season last week, it’s the men’s turn, with withe 48th Lowe von Bonn tournament starting on Friday. A big field of 260 fencers is entered; the top seeds:
1. Alessio Foconi (ITA) ~ 2018 World Champion
2. Race Imboden (USA) ~ 2019 World Team gold medalist
3. Enzo Lefort (FRA) ~ 2019 World Champion
4. Daniele Garozzo (ITA) ~ 2016 Olympic Champion
5. Gerek Meinhardt (USA) ~ 2019 World Team gold medalist
6. Andrea Cassara (ITA) ~ 2011 World Champion
7. Ka Long Cheung (HKG)
8. Alexander Massialas (USA) ~ 2019 World Team gold medalist; 2016 Olympic silver
9. Nick Itkin (USA)
10. Erwann Le Pechoux (FRA) ~ Four-time World Team gold medalist
The powerful U.S. team, with four men ranked in the top 10, will certainly be the favorite in Sunday’s team competition. Look for results here.
