2 April 2007 - The unshakeable Eun Young Choi worms her way into the wind

The unshakeable Eun Young Choi worms her way into the wind Ulsan – 2 April 2007  Zhang Juan Juan (CHN)    The afternoon in Ulsan confirmed the everlasting domination of the Korean female archers in Recurve. Five of their six athletes in this World Cup have taken the top places after 144 arrows!!! The sixth Korean is then ranked at the 7th place. It seems their opponents will have a hard time trying to stop them from trusting the medals at this first World Cup stage they compete at home both on Wednesday during the elimination matches as well as in the finals on Friday.   The most surprising is not much the ranking but rather the scores they achieved in view of the weather conditions, especially the first seed Eun Young Choi, winner of the first 2007 Asian Grand Prix in February. Not the least to say, she scored higher at 70 meters than the best Compound male archers -340 points for Choi and 339 for both Martin Damsbo (DEN) and Dominique Genet (FRA) at this distance.   After shooting 341 at 60 meters and 330 at 50 meters, Choi finally shot her best 36-arrow series of the day with 355 at 30 meters. Her total score for qualification was 1366 points, 28 points (!) ahead of the 2nd placed archer, her teammate Chang Suk Chung. Damsbo for his part finished with 1345.   The Qualification Rounds also count as team’s qualifications. The coaches had to decide before the beginning of the competition on the three archers who would compete in the team event on Thursday. This explains why the highest scorer of the day, Eun Young Choi, will not be part of the Korean team in this event.   The best non-Korean archer of the day in the Recurve Women division was the Chinese athlete Zhang Juan Juan, the winner of the 2006 World Cup. She is ranked 6th.   Europe is well-represented within pursuers with Sophie Dodemont (FRA), Iwona Marcinkiewicz (POL), Pia Carmen Lionetti (ITA), Malgorzata Cwienczek (POL), Tatiana Boroday (RUS), Berengere Schuh (FRA), Alison Williamson (GBR) and Almudena Gallardo (ESP) between the 8thand the 16th places.      Martin Damsbo (DEN) On the Compound Men’s part, the best archer at the end of the Qualification Rounds was Danish Martin Damsbo. The 22-year old archer, who is currently 19th in the World Ranking list, is ahead 2007 bronze medallist Jorge Jimenez (ESA) by eight points. Third is the French archer Dominique Genet.   In this division, the ranking shows seven different countries in the first eight positions, with three continents represented: Europe (DEN, FRA, NED, GBR), Americas (ESA, USA) and Oceania (AUS). With two archers in the top 8 and a third at the 13th position, Australia is ranked first in the team qualification, immediately followed by France and Great Britain respectively.   The first Asia representative only shows up at 16th position, being Majid Ahmadi from Iran and immediately followed by his team-mate Reza Zamaninejad. Their team is ranked 5th in these qualifications. This proves that the hard work of this country started last year and their training at the Middle East Archery Center in Cairo (MEAC) has started bearing its fruits. A good omen for this qualifying Olympic year!   Tomorrow –Tuesday- is time for the Recurve Men and Compound Women to enter the competition and look forward to qualifying to the 1/32 individual eliminations on Wednesday.  All the RESULTS See more PHOTOS Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication