USA on top 3 places in Compound Men

 
The Compound Men and Recurve Women took to the field in the Yuan Shen Stadium for the qualifications this morning. The Recurve Men and Compound Women shot in the afternoon. Qualifications consist of 72 arrows at 70 metres.   Recurve Women The Korean athletes were not as dominant as they were at the World Cup Stage 3 in Ogden (USA) last month. In fact, Polish archer Justyna MOSPINEK was the best this morning with 673 points. She was tied on points with KI Bo-Bae (KOR), but MOSPINEK had a higher number of 10s. YUN Ok-Hee (KOR) finished 3rd with 671 points and then there was a big gap to 4th place. CHING Ming (CHN) and Khatuna LORIG (USA) were tied at 657 points, two more than world champion JOO Hyun-Jung (KOR) and ZHU Shanshan (CHN).   These qualifications should make for very interesting match-ups in the race for a World Cup Final place: MOSPINEK, Jennifer NICHOLS (USA) and Elena KUZNETSOVA (BLR) are in the same part of the match table while another quarter of the draw finds KI, Berengere SCHUH (FRA), Victoriya KOVAL (UKR) and ZHU Shanshan (CHN)—this means only one of these athletes will reach the semifinals. The most difficult is however the part with three Korean athletes: YUN, Ogden World Cup winner KIM Mun Joung (KOR) and current world champion JOO Hyun-Jung join Inna STEPANOVA (RUS).   Compound Men WILDE was first with 703 points, ahead of young teammates Ben CLELAND, 701, and co-team world champion Braden GELLENTHIEN, 700. Reza ZAMANINEJAD (IRI) made a return on the elite scene with 699 points, tied with Martin DAMSBO (DEN). Alexander DAMBAEV (RUS) scored 698 points followed by the three British athletes, Chris WHITE, Duncan BUSBY and Liam GRIMWOOD.   WILDE, however, did not inherit an easy match table. He may meet Seppie CILLIERS (RSA), 2008 World Cup finalist Patrick COGHLAN (AUS), 2009 worlds silver medallist GRIMWOOD, 2007 world champion Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN) and FITA Round world record holder Peter ELZINGA (NED) on his way. The second quarter of the draw has Martin DAMSBO (DEN), Vladas SIGAUSKAS (LTU) and 2009 world bronze medallist Stephen CLIFTON (NZL). In the bottom part of the draw, GELLENTHIEN does not have an easy route either. He will meet opponents such as Clint FREEMANN (AUS), Jose DUO (ESP) and the other American running for a place in Edinburgh, Rodger WILLET Jr in a tough field.   Recurve Women Team Korea finished on top of the ranking in this division with 1999 points. China finished 2nd with 1944 and USA was 3rd with 1934. It is worth noting that Korea scored 1998 points in Ogden. So it is not the Koreans who shot worse (individually), it is the rest of the world that shot better!   Compound Men Team The USA dominated this division with 2090 points, ahead of Great Britain, 2088, and Iran, 2075.   Didier MIEVILLE World Archery Communication