Sara Lopez and Sawyer Sullivan won the compound events at the second stage of the 2024 Hyundai Archery World Cup, booking their slots to the season-ending finale as well as topping the podium at Jinho International Archery Field in Yecheon, Korea.
It is the first stage win of Sullivan’s career and the 12th of Lopez’s – but the first since 2021.
“I’m so happy. And if I’m happy, then I can be the old Sara,” she said. “Coming here, I had pressure from the federation, from the country, but my parents, my fiancé, my friends, they told me, ‘do it for you because you love this’.”
Lopez cried as the Colombian anthem was played.
“I lost all my happiness a couple of years ago. I was doing this because other people needed me to,” said the eight-time circuit champion.
“Not anymore. Now I’m back, I feel like the old me.”
She performed like the archer who went unbeaten internationally for nearly two years in the mid-2010s, the archer who topped the world ranking list for a record time, and the archer who singlehandedly changed the landscape of compound women’s archery, raising the bar time and time again.
Lopez upset top seed Han Seungyeon with a 149 in their semifinal and looked comfortable and confident as she beat Andrea Becerra, 146-144, in the final.
The win makes her the first reigning Hyundai Archery World Cup Champion to book her ticket to this year’s final, scheduled for Tlaxcala in October.
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