6 September 2011 - Difficult conditions for para-archers at Stoke Mandeville Open

Difficult conditions for para-archers at Stoke Mandeville Open Stoke Mandeville (GBR) – 6 September 2011   The Stoke Mandeville Open, Para-Archery World Ranking Event, has started in Stoke Mandeville, United Kingdom and will run until 9 September 2011. The number of archers was so great (174) that the Organising Committee had to split the divisions into three separate sessions.   On Tuesday, 6 September the first group was greeted with rain and very strong winds.   As explained to the Team Captains, it was too dangerous to put up shelter because the wind gusts would have pushed the shelter towards the archers. Safety is the key issue.   The rain eased off during the first few ends but the wind made shooting difficult for the male archers in the first session.   Despite difficult conditions, the recurve men W2 archers achieved some respectable scores with Jose Manual MARIN (ESP) qualifying first with 548 for the 70m Round with JUNG Young-Joo (KOR) closely behind with 545.   The recurve men’s Standing class saw France and Germany vying for the top spot with Armando CABREIRA (FRA) just holding on to finish ahead of Matthias ALPERS (GER), 548 to 546.   The group of men shooting compound in the W1 class saw American mouth shooter Jeffrey FABRE (USA) score 639, some 44 points ahead of the host nation’s John CAVANAGH (GBR). This is the largest group of archers with 22 Paralympic places at stake.   The final group saw the women shooting their 70m Round with strong wind gusts and dark clouds covering the sky. The archer from Mongolia had a nervous wait to see if her bow could be found by the airline. The kindness of the French and Italian teams had offered the correct type of bow and arrows but the bow was found in time.   The recurve women’s Standing division was led by Eliane SALDEN-OTTEN (NED) with 561 points), but remarkably the Mongolian archer, Javzmaa BYAMBASUREN, spurred on by getting her bow back ranked in second place.   The recurve women W2 division was led by Veronica FLORENO (ITA) with 528 followed by Kate MURRAY (GBR).   The best scores of the afternoon came from the compound women Open competitors with 642 from Carmen RUBIO (ESP) and 639 for the second place getter, Olga POLEGAEVA (RUS). Programme Results Carole HICKS World Archery Communication