IM Dong-Hyun and Danielle BROWN top qualifications in the morning session

 
Recurve men and compound women categories shot in the morning. Recurve women and compound men follow in the afternoon. All the athletes shot 72 arrows in qualifications, recurve at 70 metres and compound at 50 metres. The qualification and elimination rounds are being held in the Yuan Chen Stadium for the fourth time. The finals will then take place on the River Boulevard in Pudong on 14-15 April.  Recurve Men Halfway through qualifications, the highest ranked archer in recurve men was KUO Cheng Wei of Chinese Taipei with 344 points. He was closely followed by reigning Olympic and world team champion IM Dong-Hyun (KOR), 2nd with 343. IM also won the Shanghai World Cup Stage in 2010 and the World Cup Final in 2008. At 3rd place after 36 arrows was another Korean world champion, OH Jin Hyek with 340, and behind were three archers with 339: the World Cup Final winner 2010 and 2011 Brady ELLISON (USA), Crispin DUENAS (CAN), and the individual and team world champion 2011KIM Woojin (KOR).   After 72 arrows KUO lost the 1st place to the benefit of IM (688), but still remained 2nd (682). The fourth Korean KIM Bubmin, who was 18th only at the halfway mark, leapt forward and reached 3rd place (680). The young Frenchman Gael PREVOST came up from 7th to 4th place (678). DUENAS lost two places (5th) with 677, the same score as his teammate Jay LYON, who came up from 7th to 5th rank. ELLISON finished 7th (676).   There was a shoot-off for 8th place between Dmytro HRACHOV (UKR) and the Korean OH (both with 675 points). Indeed according to the rules the top 8 archers from qualifications are exempt from shooting the first two elimination rounds. This means they are directly qualified for the 1/16 matches. The shoot-off arrow was a 9 for HRACHOV, while OH released a 10 just inside the line the clinch 8th place. The last qualifying place (104th) for the elimination matches was for Paul Andre HAGEN (NOR) with 590 points.   Recurve Men Team Unsurprisingly, Korea flew over team qualifications. With 2043 points they tied their own world record set in Shanghai two years before, finishing 31 points ahead of France (2012). Third was Ukraine with 2006 points, the same score as India, 4th. The top 16 teams have qualified for the 1/8 elimination round. The last qualifying team was Turkey with 1950, only three points ahead of Belarus (1947). The Turks will face the favourite Koreans in the first round on Friday, 13 April.  Compound Women Linda OCHOA (MEX) led the compound women's division halfway through qualifications with the highest score of 347 points. Four ladies were tied behind between 2nd and 5th place: the three Americans Christie COLIN, Jamie VAN NATTA, and Erika ANSCHUTZ, who were team world champions 2011 together, as well as Danielle BROWN (GBR), all with 344 points. BROWN is the reigning Para-Archery world champion in the compound women open category.   The Mexican OCHOA finished qualifications in 2nd place with 693, one point behind BROWN who topped the 50m Compound Round. The best American lady was VAN NATTA, 3rd with 692, followed by ANSCHUTZ, 4th four points behind (688). The reigning world champion Albina LOGINOVA (RUS), who was 7th after 36 arrows, leapt forward to 5th place after 72 (686). Anastasia ANASTASIO (ITA) had an even bigger leap forward, from 20th to 6th place (685). The Italian was closely followed by her teammate Marcella TONIOLI, 7th (684), and Pascale LEBECQUE (FRA), 8th (683). The U.S. lady COLIN let the top 8 go for one point (682), finishing 9th.   As 46 athletes were entered in this category, eliminations will start in 1/24 round. Therefore, the top 18 ladies will have byes for the first elimination round on Thursday, 12 April.   Compound Women Team As on the recurve men's side, there was no surprise in the compound women's qualification event. Team USA clinched top place with a total score of 2062, 14 points before Italy with 2048. The French team finished 3rd with 2035. With 11 teams in this competition, the top 5 teams (including Mexico 4th and India 5th) have directly entered the quarterfinal round to be held on Thursday.   Stayed tuned at www.worldarchery.org!   World Archery Communication