16 March 2007 - Indoor World Championships: Two double World Champions !

Two double World Champions ! Izmir - 16 March 2007   Senyuk (UKR) in Recurve Junior Men and Kuula (RUS) in Recurve Junior Women won both the Individual and the Team titles. Abidduev (RUS) won in Compound Junior Men and Anastasio in Compound Junior Women.   Recurve Junior Men The Individual Semi-Finals in this category were Tedford (USA) vs. Shakirov (RUS) and Senyuk (UKR) vs. Belov. The first match was led by the Ukrainian from the beginning as he shot 2 first perfect ends, while his opponent had a score of 57 at the end of the second end. Shakirov followed to keep on thriving to win the match 116-114. The second match saw the Ukrainian take the advantage since the start over the the Russian, he finished winning the match 117-115.   The Gold Medal match was then Shakirov-Senyuk. Senyuk took a two points advantage as of the first end over Shakirov, who could not handle to come back to the score. These two points difference continued to be until the last end, and Senyuk won over Shakirov with a great score of 118-116. Gold goes to Senyuk !   Recurve Junior Women Benatti (ITA) vs. Kuular (RUS) and Veselovska (UKR) vs.Fedorova (RUS) were the semi-final matches shot in this category. The first match was a quite close match in the last two ends, with only one point difference, but still led by the Russian, who finally won the match 117-116. The second match saw the Ukrainian lead the match over the Russian from the start to the end, to finally defeat Fedorova 110-116.   The fight for Bronze was then between Benatti and Fedorova. The match begun with a perfect first end for the Russian, leading by two points on the Italian. The lead continued consistently until the third end. The Russian finally won the match 117-113 and took back home Bronze Medal.   The fight for Gold was then between another Russian, Kuular, and Ukrainian Veselovska. The Russian took a slight advantage as of the beginning of the match, and the gap continued to increase to finally win over Veselovska 114-109. Gold goes to Kuular !   Compound Junior Men The semi-final matches were : Wickliffe (USA) vs. Marbacher (SUI) and Abidduev (RUS) vs. van Huffel (FRA). The Wickliffe-Marbacher match was so close and exciting from the first to the last end (28-27, 56-56, 85-85, 113-113) that both deserved to win the match. The tie-break had to decide on the winner, and finally it was the Swiss who shot a 10 (Wickliffe 9), who won the match. The second match was as exciting as the first one, since they were also tied at the end of the fourth end 115-115. The tie-break awarded the victory to the Russian, since he shot a 10, while the Frenchman only a 9.   The Bronze Medal match was then shot between Wickliffe and van Huffel.  Van Huffel led slightly the match from the beginning (28-29, 56-58, 84-86) to finally win the Bronze Medal 113-115.   Gold Medal match was then shot between Marbacher and Abidduev. The Russian took a slight advantage as of the first end, with one point difference. This score difference continued consistently during the next ends, and even increased of one point. The final score was 112-110 in favour of Abidduev, who takes Gold back home ! Marbacher is of course rewarded for his great performance with Silver.    Compound Junior Women Anastasio (ITA) vs. Christensen (USA) and Ioannou (GRE) vs. Mozhaykina (RUS) were the semies to be shot. The Italian-American match, was really interesting to follow, since they were both shooting same scores end after end to finally finish tied 111-111. But the willpower of Anastasio made her win the match with a 10, while Christensen only shot a 9, with tears in her eyes. The second match was also very interesting, as we could see the skills of the Greek archer Ioannou. She led the match from the beginning by one or two points, but then she strengthen the score difference to win the match 116-112. She will then go for Gold against Anastasio later this afternoon.   The Bronze Medal match was then Christensen vs. Mozhaykina, an astonishing match. In the first two ends, the Russian was leading by one point, but suddenly the American took her acts together to take the lead on the Russian by 2 points in the last two ends and finally win the match 114-112! Bronze goes for Christensen !   The Gold Medal match between Anastasio and Ioannou was as exciting and tight as we promised ! The first end was led by Ioannou by one single point, but Anastasio managed to tie the score in the second end 55-55. The Italian then took advantage over the Greek by 1 point in the third end. Unfortunately, the Greek could not come back to the score, and finally lost the match by 4 pts 110-114. Gold goes to Anastasio !   Chantal Steiner FITA Communication