South Korea’s Ki, whose teammate Kang Chae Young finished third, did her utmost to catch the leader over the final stretch but Shih-Chia managed to resist the onslaught to prevail by a margin of two points,

"I was nervous and I was quite surprised with the scores," said Shih-Chia.

"I was keeping in mind what my coach told me, focusing on my technique and my body position."

Shih-Chia also finished at the summit of the individual intermediary rankings, two points ahead of North Korea’s Choe Ok Sil with Ki a further three behind alongside India’s Deepika Kumari, Lin’s teammate Tan Ya-Ting, and Mexico’s Alejandra Valencia.

Chinese Taipei were the top team after 36 arrows, but ultimately had to settle for the runners-up spot.

South Korea rallied during the second half of the ranking round to regain the qualification lead, while China came third. 

Only 16 of the 43 competing teams qualified for tomorrow's elimination phase, in which Rio 2016 Olympic qualifying spots are up for grabs.  

Meanwhile, Italy’s Mauro Nespoli lived up to his billing as a ranking round specialist to top the men’s recurve qualification standings in windy conditions.

Nespoli finished three points clear of Moldovan runner-up Dan Olaru with a total of 666, while South Korea’s Ku Bonchan was third on 660.

A total of 233 athletes took to the field to shoot 72 crucial qualifying arrows, both for themselves, and the team event.

"The wind was not so easy to understand," said Nespoli. 

"I needed to aim in different places every time I shot, but it was interesting to see that everyone was in the same situation."

Eighteen-year-old Olaru has been competing internationally since 2010.

He finished ninth at London 2012 and has since been shooting at different stages of the Archery World Cup, usually reaching a similar position.

The second seed was happy with his ranking and career high score in competition, especially given the testing conditions.

"For me it’s a good score because the weather is very bad and it’s very cold," said Olaru.

"I did expect to do well but maybe not that well."

In arguably the biggest surprise of the session, Toronto 2015 Pan American champion Luis Alvarez missed the 104-athlete cut.

His Mexican team also failed to qualify after finishing way down in 20th position, with South Korea, Italy and The Netherlands the top seeds.

As in the women’s competition, only the top 16 teams have a chance of winning an Olympic quota spot during the team eliminations.



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