Korea and USA win afternoon's qualifications

 
The recurve women and compound men categories competed in the afternoon. All the athletes shot 72 arrows, 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 Women Halfway through qualifications, the highest provisional score was for the No. 2 in the world and reigning team world champion KIM Bo Bae (KOR). With 331 points, the Korean was three points in front of the Indian Chekrovolu SWURO, 2nd (328). LE Chieh-Ying from Chinese Taipei and CHOI Hyeonju from Korea had scored 327 each and were ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively. Fifth was Deepika KUMARI (IND), world junior champion 2009 and 2011, with 326 points provisionally.   The Korean KI managed to keep her 1st position after 72 arrows with a total score of 666 points. SWURO went down from 2nd to 7th place (655), while TAN Ya-Ting (TPE), scoring the best second half, came up from 10th to 2nd rank (664), only two points behind KI. With a final total of 662, the Indian KUMARI improved her rank by two from 5th to 3rd. LEE Sung Jin (660) and CHOI (659) of Korea closely followed at 4th and 5th place. The multiple indoor and outdoor world champion Natalia VALEEVA (ITA) finished 6th of qualifications (656). The fourth Korean CHANG Hye Jin (649) was pipped at the post for 8th place LE from Chinese Taipei (654).   As in the recurve men's category in the morning, the top 8 are pre-seeded for the first two rounds and will start directly in 1/16 eliminations on Thursday, while there will be two rounds (1/48 and 1/24) for the others.   Recurve Women Team Korea remains the best team in recurve women, despite two newcomers in the national team this year, CHANG Hye Jin and CHOI Hyeonju. With a cumulative score of 1985, the Koreans finished twenty points ahead of the second seeded team, India (1965). Just behind was the team of Chinese Taipei, 3rd with 1964. The last qualifying place (16th) was clinched by Switzerland (1818), pipping Iran (1815) and Kazakhstan (1814) at the post by only a few points. The Swiss ladies will have the difficult task to face the big Korean favourites in the first elimination round on Friday, 13 April, however.   Recurve Mixed Team Topping both the recurve men and recurve women qualifications with IM Dong Hyun and KI Bo Bae, Korea logically finished on top of the mixed team qualification ranking. With 1354 points they were closely followed by Chinese Taipei, 2nd with 1346. India was ranked 3rd with 1334 points. The last qualifying position was hardly fought for between Japan (1278), Kazakhstan (1277) and Iran (1276).  Compound Men The American champion Reo WILDE, recent Indoor World Championships and Indoor World Cup champion 2012, and Shanghai World Cup Stage defender from last year, topped the compound men qualification's first half with 354 points. Two points behind were Peter ELZINGA (NED) and Dominique GENET (FRA), 2nd and 3rd at the halfway mark. WILDE's teammates Rodger WILLETT JR (351) and Dave COUSINS (350) were ranked 4th and 5th provisionally, while the fourth American Braden GELLENTHIEN was 7th (349) at that time.   At the end of the qualification round, WILDE was still 1st with 706 points. His teammates COUSINS (701), GELLENTHIEN (701) and WILLET (698) all finished in the top 8, at 3rd, 5th and 8th place respectively. Two French athletes scored 701 points as well, Dominique GENET (FRA), 4th, and Pierre Julien DELOCHE, 6th. With 697 points each ELZINGA, Leandro ROJAS (VEN) and Patrizio HOFER (SUI) were pipped at the post for 8th place by WILLET for one point. Thanks to shooting the best score in the second half of qualifications, Paul TITSCHER (GER) leapt up from 8th to 2nd place, three points behind WILDE (703). The best British representative today Duncan BUSBY finished 7th with a score of 699 points. The eight best athletes of today's qualifications will be exempt from the first two eliminations rounds to be held on Friday.   Compound Men Team The American compound team proved one more time the best in the world in Shanghai. They were 1st in the qualifications with a total of 2108 points. France was 2nd (2090) and Venezuela 3rd (2077), just three points ahead of Iran (2074). All 12 teams in this category are qualified for the 1/8 eliminations, with the top 4 having byes for the first round.    Compound Mixed Team In compound, without surprise the U.S. archers finished on top of the mixed team qualification round. Their best male and female representatives Reo WILDE and Jamie VAN NATTA totalled up a score of 1398. Great Britain took 2nd place (1393) and France finished 3rd (1384), closely followed by Mexico (1382) and Italy (1381). All 14 nations having doubles competing will go the eliminations, but USA and Great Britain will have byes for the first round (1/8).   The competition will continue on Thursday, 12 April with the individual eliminations all the way through to the semifinals included.   Stayed tuned at www.worldarchery.org!   World Archery Communication