Individual Road to London

Here is how the athletes caught their Olympic dream.   The individual quotas can only go to athletes whose countries are not qualified yet. Only one individual quota can be won per country. The quotas are nevertheless non-nominative. They belong to the country.   Recurve Men On the men’s side, athletes from 12 countries who had not won a team spot were still competing in the 1/16 elimination: two from India and Netherlands, one from Mongolia, Japan, Canada, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium, Chinese Taipei, Norway and Germany. The key matches in the 1/16 elimination were Jantsan GANTUGS (MON) v Hideki KIKUCHI (JPN), Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) v Anti TEKONIEMI (FIN), Jeff HENCKELS (LUX) v Elias CUESTA (ESP), KUO Cheng Wei (TPE) v Rick VAN DER VEN (NED).   GANTUGS beat KIKUCHI 7-3 (27-27, 26-25, 30-29, 28-29, 26-25) to secure a place for Mongolia! HENCKELS defeated CUESTA 6-2 (28-29, 28-23, 29-27, 26-25) to earn a place for Luxembourg! KUO beat VAN DER VEN 6-2 (28-25, 24-27, 28-27, 29-28) to win a expected place for Chinese Taipei. TALUKDAR defeated TEKONIEMI 6-4 (28-27, 24-28, 26-28, 27-26, 26-28) to finally secure a place for favourite India. In another important match, Juan Rene SERRANO (MEX) defeated Rick VAN DEN OEVER (NED) 7-3 (26-26, 29-28, 28-25, 27-28, 27-26).   Therefore, after the 1/16 eliminations Mongolia, Canada, Luxembourg, Chinese Taipei, India and Norway won an individual place for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Netherlands (with two archers), Belgium, Japan, Germany, Spain and Finland had to play an Olympic play-off for the last two remaining places.   In the first round of this Olympic play-off, KIKUCHI defeated Kurt DE BAECKER (BEL) 7-3 (29-27, 26-27, 28-28, 29-26, 29-28). Elias CUESTA (ESP) beat Florian FLOTO (GER) 6-2 (29-28, 27-28, 28-26, 25-24). VAN DEN OEVER eliminated Antti TEKONIEMI (FIN) 7-1 (26-26, 27-23, 28-24, 28-26). VAN DER VEN had a bye.   Therefore there were two Dutchmen in two different matches, and two chances to win one Olympic spot. Both matches went to the limit of five sets. VAN DER VEN played KIKUCHI, and despite leading 4-2, he lost 4-6 (26-28, 29-27, 29-27, 28-29, 27-28). VAN DEN OEVER played CUESTA and despite leading 4-2, lost 4-6 (27-26, 24-27, 27-26, 22-29, 27-29). Unlucky Dutchmen!   KIKUCHI and CUESTA won one Olympic place for Japan and Spain! They just shot one more arrow against one another just to define who won this play-off tournament. CUESTA scored 10, KIKUCHI 9.   Recurve Women On the women’s side, athletes from nine countries who had not won a team spot, were still in the hunt in the 1/16 eliminations: three from France and USA, two from Georgia and Poland, one from Germany, Belarus, Japan, Chile, DPR Korea. However, only eight countries out of nine can win another spot. There will be one heavy disappointment.   There were several key matches in the 1/16 eliminations. Berengere SCHUH (FRA) was tied with Lisa UNRUH (GER) after two sets: 9-9-10 v 8-X10-9 for UNRUH in the first set; 9-9-10 v 6-9-9 for SCHUH in the second one- The French athlete won the next two sets (8-10-9 v 9-8-8 and 9-9-X10 v 9-9-9) to secure an Olympic spot for France. Khatuna LORIG did the same for the USA, beating Celine BEZAULT (FRA) 6-0 (27-26, 27-24, 28-26). Ren HAYAKAWA (JPN) trailed Victorya KOVAL (UKR) 2 set points to 4 after three sets. The archers tied the fourth set with 29 points each. HAYAKAWA then shot superbly in the fifth set X10-9-9 to tie the match at 5-5. In the shoot-off, the Japanese shot another X10 and despite a 10 of her own, KOVAL had to bow before her opponent. Japan won an Olympic spot! In an other match Jessica TOMASI (ITA) took an early lead versus Khatuna NARIMANIDZE (GEO), 3 set points to 1. The Georgian came back at 3-3 and then led 5-3. However she shot 9-8-9 in the last set, while the Italian had 8-9-X10. The match was tied at 5-5. In the shoot-off, both archers shot a 9, but NARIMANIDZE was the closest to the centre and secured a well-deserved spot for Georgia! In any case, the other archer from Georgia, Kristine ESEBUA (GEO) won her match against KWON Un Sil (PRK) 6-0 (28-27, 27-23, 26-24) sending the athlete from DPR Korea to the Olympic play-off.   Therefore after the 1/16 elimination, Denmark, France, Poland, Belarus, Japan, Georgia, Chile won a place for the Olympic Games! Germany and DPR Korea had to contest the last spot in a one-match play-off!   In fact, KWON did not let any chance to UNRUH, winning 6-0 (27-25, 27-26, 28-27). Germany must be disapointed because they actually failed to earn a place both in the women and men’s side. The men’s were unlucky during the team event as FLOTO has not been to shoot properly that day due to a stiff neck.   Now, 35 of the 64 spots for the Olympic Games are known. They belong to the countries/National Olympic Committees who will then select their athletes. Moreover, subsequent qualifiers at the continental and the world level will be held until June 2012 to define the 64 men and 64 women who will compete at the London 2012 Olympic Games.   World Archery Communication