Heavy rain changed format of qualification round

Heavy rain changed format of qualification round Varese - 2 May 2007   The bad weather conditions today in Varese obliged FITA to take the decision to change the format of the qualifications for Recurve Women and Compound Men. Instead of the FITA Outdoor Round, originally scheduled, a 70m Round was shot, which means 72 arrows at a 70m distance. This decision was taken with the agreement of all team captains.    Recurve Women The lead after the first 36 arrows in the Recurve Women category was taken by two Asians, Zhang from China in the first place with 331 pts, followed by the Korean Kim with 330 pts. Eleven points behind the 1st place, we could see the French Schuh take the 3rd place with 320 pts. Local Valeeva tied with 320 pts but  placed 4th  due to a lower number of 10's.   In the second half, the top two archers were fighting for 1st place. The Korean Kim finally got it, with 645 pts, followed by the Chinese Zhang with 640 pts. Her Team mate, Guo Dan, took the 3rd place going up from the 5th in the first half. Another young Korean archer, Jung, took the 1st place of the second half which made her go up from 13th to 4th place in the overall ranking with a total of 633 pts. Valeeva went down to 5th place right after Jung with 632 pts. Schuh finished 6th with 628 pts.   In the Team ranking, Korea took 1st place with 1903 pts, closely followed by the Chinese ladies with 1892 pts. France is 3rd with 1842 pts, 2 pts ahead of Russia who ranked 4th.   Compound Men After the first half, the Compound Men ranking was  led by the surprising British archer, Shaw, with 347 pts. He was closely followed by Karsenty (ISR) with 345 pts. Danish Damsbo also shot 345 pts, but one 10 less than his opponent from Israel, so he took the 3rd place after the first 36 arrows. Swiss star Hofer took 4th place with 343 points.   In the end the overall 1st place was for the unexpected Dutchmen, Polman, with a total of 691 pts (he was in 6th place after 36 arrows)! Damsbo went up  to take the 2nd place with 690 pts, closely followed by Logan Wilde, Gellenthien (USA) and Shaw, respectively, with the same total score of 689 pts. The FITA Athletes Committee Member, Villi (CRO), came back strong from the 19th to the 6th place, having the highest score of the second half(350 pts) and achieving a total of 688 pts. Hofer lost 3 places with a bad second half. He is now ranked 7th with 687 pts. Finnish Haavisto and Karsenty are just behind with the same score in 8th and 9th place. We look forward to close elimination matches on Thursday!   The team of USA took the lead on the team side, with a total score of 2054 pts. Just behind them, France is taking 2nd place with 2047 pts, followed by Denmark with 2038 pts. Beware of the Dutch team, as they are only 2 points behind the 3rd ranked country. The battle for gold is just beginning!   Chantal Steiner FITA Communication