Round-by-round: Wroclaw individual eliminations round-up

Each competition category is filtered down to just a final four during individual eliminations day at an Archery World Cup stage. Here’s a snapshot of a fast and action-packed day at the third of four legs in Wroclaw.

Read the full results

Rounds 1 and 2

Highlight match: Roberto Hernandez  / Julien Depoitier  (compound men)

Eighteenth seed Hernandez didn’t get going in his second round match to Belgium’s Depoiter. He shot too many nines, couldn’t find the X – and his 47th-ranked opponent squeaked him by a point: 144-143.

Best of the rest: Germany’s Lisa Unruh, the 10th seeded recurve woman, was upset by Sylwia Zyzanska of home nation Poland in the second round, at the same time as her teammate and the 20th-ranked Veronika Haidn Tschalova was taken out by Michelle Gilbert from the USA.

A Shoot-off between Pierre Plihon and Brazilian Bernardo Oliveira in the first round would go the former’s way, but the Frenchman then lost in the second to an Olympic medallist.

Round 3

Highlight match: Collin Klimitchek  / Beligto Tsynguev  (recurve men)

Top-seeded Collin couldn’t find his groove. “I didn’t shoot enough 10s,” he said, after his first and only individual match of the tournament. His Russian opponent started with a pair of 28s to Collin’s 27s, then they drew the last two sets: 6-2, and the top seed was out.

Best of the rest: All the shoot-offs. Eight in total, and seven of them were won with 10s. Those that won in a tiebreaker were: Sarah Prieels, Alejandra Usquiano, Amira Mansour, Aida Roman, Marcus D’Almeida, Dai Xiaoxiang, JC Valladont and Anton Prilepov.

Round 4

Highlight match: Ayano Kato  / Deepika Kumari  (recurve women)

Five-one up and in a commanding lead, Deepika shot 27, 24 with her last two sets – while Kato was better. The tiebreaker was close and both arrows scored nine, but Kumari, who has had three silver medals at Archery World Cup Finals, put her arrow further from the middle.

Best of the rest: London 2012 Paralympic Champion Zahra Nemati was 4-4 with Elena Richter, but couldn’t close – and a last-set 23 points wasn’t enough to steal a win and make the recurve women’s quarterfinals.

In the compound men’s competition, India’s Abhishek Verma and Reo Wilde went to a shoot-off at 148 all. Verma shot a 10, his States’ opponent a nine. Top seeded compound woman, 17-year-old Ukrainian Mariya Shkolna went out to Mexico’s Linda Ochoa, 144-141.

Quarterfinals

Highlight match: Alejandra Usquiano  / Sarah Prieels  (compound women)

One point ahead most of the way, Alejandra put in a 29 with her last three arrows. Prieels scored 30 and forced the shoot-off, which her Colombian opponent won with a 10.

After qualifying low thanks to not shooting an arrow during her last end of the ranking round after running out of time, Usquiano said her shooting was the result of months of hard work.

“I’ve got control back over my shooting,” she explained.

Best of the rest: Dane Martin Damsbo’s big 149 to beat top seeded Braden Gellenthien in the compound men’s competition – and a five-set back-and-forth tustle between JC Valladont of France and Spain’s Juan Rodriguez, which went the Frenchman’s way.

Semifinals

Highlight match: Kristine Esebua  / Mackenzie Brown  (recurve women)

Georgia’s Esebua, who knocked out reigning Archery World Cup Champion Aida Roman in the quarters, started with a perfect 30. Mackenzie fought back, winning the second and the pivotal fifth after the pair drew over the third and fourth three-arrow series.

Best of the rest: Asian Games Champion – and new world team champ with Iran – Esmaeil Ebadi made another final. He beat out Martin Damsbo, 147-145. “He shot great,” said Martin, graciously, after the match.

But the Dane had an issue with a release aid that wouldn’t engage during a shot and had to drop the arrow into the ground before the three-metre line to have a chance at getting another off. Martin said: “it completely put me off my rhythm”.

Three of the four recurve semifinals went the full four sets, with States athletes Mackenzie and Zach Garrett, and Japan’s Ayano Kato coming out on top. JC Valladont, of France, was the only semifinalist to win in short order: 6-0 over Baku 2015 bronze medallist Anton Prilepov.