5 April 2007 - Koreans leaves crumbs for the rest

Koreans leaves crumbs for the rest Ulsan – 5 April 2007  Match between the Russian and American teams    On Thursday in Ulsan, Korea the archers took the field at Munsu International Archery Centre for the team competition (three competitors per team). The morning was dedicated to the first two rounds and the semi-finals, whereas the afternoon featured the bronze and gold matches in all four categories –Compound Women, Compound Men, Recurve Women and Recurve Men. The last five matches were broadcast live on Korean television.   For the medal matches the teams turned to alternate shooting: this means that each archer of a team shoots one arrow and it is then their opponents’ turn to shoot an end of three arrows. A match is completed when the two teams have shot 24 arrows.   Compound Women - Bronze medal match The afternoon’s competition started with the bronze medal match of the Compound Women category between the France and the host country Korea. The Koreans have started shooting Compound only recently but with very good results already. In this match the best start was for France with two 10s by Valerie Fabre in the first and second ends, while Kim H.S., Lee B.D. and Seo J.H. began their match with two 7s.   Ahead by five points after the second end (55-50), the French ladies increased their advantage to a 12-point lead after 12 arrows, as one of the first Korean shot a 3 (108-96). Fabre, Chesse and Bouillot could then manage the match to finish with 213 points while Korea reached just 200. The first bronze medal of the event was for France!   Compound Women - Gold medal match The match for Gold just followed. All four individual finalists of the 2006 World Cup were meeting again here: Kazantzeva and Goncharova for Russia, Van Natta and Davies for USA, with respective team-mates Bolotova and Fleury. The East European team started the match the strongest. Led by a solid Goncharova, the Russian team shot seven 10s out of their first nine arrows!      Ahmadi, Sadeghimaeibody and Zamaninejad (IRI) The Americans tried hard to fill in the gap that separated them from their opponents, but the Russian archers would not leave the slightest breach for Van Natta and her team-mates to seep in. They finally clinched the match with a great total of 225 points over USA who finished with 221.   Compound Men - Bronze medal match Shooting for bronze the Tasmanian Clint Freeman -the first archer ever shooting above 1400 points in a FITA Round and 2003 Individual World Champion- and team-mates Timms and Coghlan were facing the tricolour archers Genet, Dardenne and Brasseur. In a close match the French kept a short advantage from the beginning to the end and clinched victory with the smallest possible margin: 221-222.   Compound Men - Gold medal match This match was opening today’s live TV coverage in Ulsan. Just before it started, the Korean television broadcast a short program explaining the difference between Recurve and Compound. In Korea only the Olympic (or Recurve bow) is well-known, the Koreans being the best archers in the World in this division.   The gold medal match of the Compound Men category put Great Britain at grips with the surprising Iranian team. After they qualified two Compound archers (one woman and one man) for the individual semi-finals to be competed tomorrow, Iran’s ambitions have been on the rise in this World Cup event.   Yun M.J., Yun O.H. and Park S.H. (KOR)    In a match that Great-Britain started with an amazing 10-10-10 first end, the Iranians confirmed they will have to be counted for in the future. The match was extremely tight all the way. The result of this match became even more uncertain when the British Wakelin, Grimwood and White drew as near as one single point behind (142-143) imitating their opponent with a perfect fifth end. However, Ahmadi, Sadeghimaeibody and Zamaninejad proved strong enough to hold their nerves claiming gold by 224-223.   Recurve Women - Bronze medal match The first Recurve match opposed the European ladies of Great Britain to the ones of France for the bronze medal. The two teams had a hard time finding their marks as the wind started to blow strong again. The lowest arrow by France was a 4 in the second end, while Great Britain scored a 5 with their eighth arrow.
The first to recover from a bad start were the British shooting a very strong fourth end with 10-9-10. This allowed Olympic bronze medallist Williamson and her team-mates Burgess and Folkard to take a 7-point lead that they kept up to the end. They finished with a total of 200 while their French opponents Arnold, Dodemont and Schuh finally scored a total of 193.   Recurve Women - Gold medal match Local spectators had crowded for the first medal match featuring a Korean team. With Poland as opponents Yun M.J., Yun O.H. and Park S.H. had a hard time finding their marks as well… Although leading after six arrows, they then found themselves behind by two points (73-75) after they shot a low series of 7-6-9.      Park K.M., Im D.H. and Lee C.H. (KOR) The same margin was separating the two teams half way (100-102). The Korean ladies recovered from their disadvantage and were tied with Cwienczek, Marcinkiewicz and Mospinek after the sixth end. World Record holder Park chose that moment to add pressure with a 10 at her last but one arrow. One of her team-mates imitated her with another ten in the last end to take another victory on the score of 203-194.   Recurve Men - Bronze medal match What a bronze medal match for the French in the Recurve Men category! Shooting two 10s in a row, Aubert hit the very centre of the target with his first arrow. This made the organizers fear for the camera they placed in the bull’s eye.   Helped by team-mates Girouille and De Grandis who also shot a few 10s, the 19-year old French added even more to what appeared as an execution for the Mexicans (207-196). With eight perfect arrows in total for the French team, the medal was even clinched before the last arrow was shot!   Recurve Men - Gold medal match In the last match of the day host country Korea was facing the Italian team of reigning Olympic Champion Galiazzo, 2006 World Cup runner-up Di Buo and 2003 World Champion Frangilli. This confrontation reached a very high level in view of the weather conditions (cold and windy). Taking the lead from the second arrow the World Cup winner Park K.M. and his team-mates Im D.H. and Lee C.H. never let concentration go.   When the Italians put pressure with a 9-10-10 series, the Koreans stayed on their guard and replied with the same three arrows. They finished in such a strong way with five additional 10s out of their last nine arrows and a final score of 220 that the Italians could only congratulate them. Read what the archers said today: QUOTES All the RESULTS See more PHOTOS Let’s meet again tomorrow for the final day of the Archery World Cup Stage 1!   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication