16 March 2007 - Indoor World Championships: Juniors from USA, Ukraine and Russia on Top !

Juniors from USA, Ukraine and Russia on Top ! Izmir - 16 March 2007   This Friday was the chance for young archers to fulfill a dream and to put their countries on the top of the world for a moment. This what the juniors from USA, Ukraine and Russia (twice) did !    Recurve Junior Men Team The semi-finals were shot between, on one side, Ukraine vs. Norway, and on the other side Poland vs. Italy. Ukraine was leading the match up to the end, against Norway, to win 233-218 pts. The second match was a little bit tighter, particularly in the third end, where the score was of 171-172 in the advantage of Italy. But in the following end, the Italians strengthen their gap to win the match 223-228.   The Bronze Medal match will be then shot between Norway and Poland. This match was quite interesting, since the Norwegians were loosing in the first two ends by 5 points, but suddenly they took their acts together to shoot some good scores and lower the score difference by 2 points. Unfortunately for them, their efforts were not enough to bring the Bronze medal back home; they lost at the end by 3 points 227-224. It was still a great performance for the Norwegian Juniors!   Gold Medal match : Italy vs. Ukraine. The Italian Team begun the match by leading 29-27 in the 1st end, but the Ukraine Team took their acts together to take the advantage over the Italians as of the 2nd end. They didn’t stop increasing the score difference end after end and finally defeated the Italians 233-223. Gold goes for Ukraine !   Recurve Junior Women This category saw the Russian girls shoot against the Polish girls in the first semi. The Russians took the advantage as of the first end, to lead up to the end and win the match 230-224, beating also yesterday’s world record! The second semi-finals match was Italy vs. Turkey. The Championships Hosts led the match from the beginning to the end without giving a chance to the Italians to come back to the score. They finally won 219-222, and they will go for Gold against Russia later this afternoon.   The Bronze medal match was then Poland vs. Italy. Poland slightly led the match in the first two ends, but the score difference grew up as of the third end, to finally win the Bronze Medal 226-208.   For Gold, Turkey shot against Russia. The Turkish Team was welcomed with loud cheers from the locals to begin the match. However, the first arrow of the Turkish girls was a 7. The Russians took the lead as of the 1st end, although Turkish Team tried hard to come back to the score (1 pt difference in the third end) they could not handle it very long. The score difference continued to increase end after end and they finally lost the match with 9 pts difference. Gold goes for Russia !   Compound Junior Men USA vs. Russia and Italy vs. France were the semi-finals of the category. The US Team prevailed in their match consistently, scoring 3 pts more than their opponents in each end, and winning 233-230. They also beat yesterday’s World Record! The second match saw the French team loose against Italy by one single point. France could not manage to catch up the score difference, at the end, however, they tried hard.   The Bronze Medal match was then Russia vs. France. This was an exciting and tight match since the beginning, scoring 57-58 in the first end. The French Team could then manage to make the score difference bigger, to finally win the Bronze Medal with the score of 227-231.   In the Gold battle between USA and Italy, the first end was tied 28-28, but the score difference grew up in favour of the US Team in the following ends. The score after 12 arrows was 114-111. The second set of 12 arrows was also led by the Americans who were not pushed around and finally defeated the Italians 229-223 and took Gold home!   Compound Junior Women The semis saw USA vs. Turkey and Great Britain vs. Russia. The first match, USA-Turkey was clearly lead by USA with a large score difference, the Turkish Team must have had some problems there. The final score was 225-183. The second match was also led from the beginning to the end by the Russian Team. They won the battle against Great Britain 232-221, setting also the new World Record.   The Bronze Medal match was then shot between Turkey and Great Britain. This was an easy match for Great Britain, since the first arrow of the Turkish Team was a miss. Another miss followed in the second end, and two other bad arrows also hit the target. There must have been either an equipment problem or maybe too much stress for our Hosts? The final score was 222-196.   Gold Medal Match : USA vs. Russia. The Russian Team led the match after 12 arrows by 2 pts. They continued consistently to finally win Gold over the American girls 225-222. The Americans tried hard, but could not come back to the score.     Chantal Steiner FITA Communication