Eliminations through to semifinals at Stoke Mandeville Open

The morning session ran over time because there were many ties and matches had to be resolved by the single arrow shoot-off. This was an indication of how closely fought many of the matches were.   The recurve women W2 event was pretty much a European affair with Miroslava CERNA and Marketa SIDKOVA both from the Czech Republic winning their way to the gold medal match, while Veronica FLORENO (ITA) and Maria DROSTE (GER) will contest the bronze medal match.   In recurve women standing, top seeded Eliane SALDEN-OTTEN (NED) will meet No. 3 seed Milena OLSZEWSKA (POL) in the gold medal match. For the bronze medal, No. 15 seed Wieslawa WOLAK (POL) shot very well to reach the match against Magali COMTE (SUI).   Philippe HORNER (SUI), the reigning world champion, will meet No. 5 seed Maurice CHAMPEY (FRA) for the gold medal in the compound men open class. Top seeded Lorenzo SCHIEDA (ITA) who had two very close matches on his way to the bronze medal match will meet the only Korean archer in the group, No. 26 seed LEE Ouk Soo.   A high seeding was no guarantee of progressing through the matches in compound women open. Top seed Carmen RUBIO (ESP) survived one match before falling to Ifigenia NERI the No. 16 seed from Italy. No. 2 seed Olga POLEGAEVA (RUS) did a little better before losing her 1/8 round in a tie-break with teammate Marina LYZHNIKOVA 10-10 on a measure of the arrow closest to the centre. The gold medal finalists are Ainara BADIOLA (ESP) and Marina LYZHNIKOVA (RUS) with the bronze medal match between Karen VAN NEST (CAN) and Gulbin SU (TUR).   During the afternoon the weather became cooler.   In contrast to the compound women open, the recurve men standing division went on seeding to the gold medal match with No. 1 seed Armando CABREIRA (FRA) set to meet 2nd seed Matthias ALPERS (GER). The bronze medal match, however, will see No. 21 seed Luciano REZENDE (BRA) up against No. 14 seed Vaclav KOSTAL (CZE).   The recurve men W2 class will see Vittorio BARTOLI (ITA) the No. 9 seed meet one of the few Korean archers to make to the later rounds, YOU In Sik. YOU reached the final the hard way with a shoot-off against Yutaka AJIMA of Japan where both archers scored 10s and a measure was required. AJIMA will meet Ozgur OZEN (TUR) in the bronze medal match.   In compound men W1, it was "normal service has resumed" with old foes Jeffrey FABREY (USA) and John CAVANAGH (GBR) meeting in the gold medal match. Canadian Norbert MURPHY will meet Peter KINIK (SVK) in the bronze medal match.   The medal matches will then take place with the team events on Friday, 9 September. Programme Results Carole HICKS World Archery Communication