1 June 2007 - World Record for Russia and big victory for Ukraine over Korea!

World Record for Russia and big victory for Ukraine over Korea! Antalya – 1 June 2007   The first day of June gives the starring role to the team event at Stage 3 of the Archery World Cup. The weather is sunny again in Antalya, Turkey with a breeze that makes the temperature very pleasant. The morning gave rise to great matches and a World Record for the Russian Compound Women team as well as an upset for the Korean Recurve Men team!   Ukraine Team    Recurve Men The first round in Recurve Men saw the early defeats of Japan and Great Britain, seed 2 and 4 respectively. The Japanese did not have time to wake up that they were already taken out, defeated by the Malaysians by one little point (215-216). Great Britain also had a difficult morning being outshined by a victorious Dutch team (222-212).   The Netherlands kept going in quarter-finals beating the strong Chinese on the score of 223-221. In this round the big surprise came from Ukraine who pushed Korea towards a crushing defeat (223-218). The Dutch and Ukrainians were then to face each other in the semis. At this stage the archers from Eastern Europe paid off their early efforts versus Korea and lost the match by 2 points (214-212). They were then to shoot for bronze just afterwards.   In the lower part of the match-chart, it was the Russian Federation to go through to the semi-finals together with Malaysia. Russia beat Italy by 221-219, while Malaysia was getting rid of another Asian country, namely India, after a shoot-off at a 214 total (26-24 with the additional three arrows). The semi-final between Malaysia and Russia turned to the advantage of the latter by only one point (217-216).   The bronze medal match then put together the losers of the semi-finals, Ukraine and Malaysia. After a coming and going lead between the two teams, at last it was the Ukrainian archers who came out victorious bringing a team bronze medal back home (212-211). The gold final will be shot this afternoon between the Netherlands and the Russian Federation.   Recurve Women No luck this morning for Japan in the recurve division. After the men lost in the very first round of the team competition, the fellow countrywomen suffered the same fate with an early defeat to France by the final score of 210-203. Another upset for Great Britain, as well, with their ladies losing to the host country after leading all the way and before the very last end (53-51/106-109/157-154). However, Turkey caught up with them at the end of the 24 regular arrows. The British archers were completely out of it in the shoot-off scoring 24 while their opponents shot 27.   However, the Turkish Recurve Women team could not go further than the next round (1/4 finals), being stopped by a strong Chinese team who shot 222 points in this match. Italy also made its way to the semi-finals defeating Mexico first (213-209) and then Georgia (216-205). The two teams reaching the semis in the highest part of the match-play chart were Korea (224-203 to Belarus and 219-211 to Russia) and France (210-206 versus Poland in quarter-finals).   The match between seed 1 Korea and seed 12 France appeared as not well-balanced at all. This proved to be the case with a 10-point difference to the Asian team’s advantage at the end of the match. The second semi-final was to be closest between Italy (seeded 3) and China (seeded 2). However, the Chinese shot lower than their usual level scoring a poor 210 total to lose to the Italians who shot the best score of the two semi-finals with 216. This bode well for the gold medal of the afternoon in Recurve Women between Korea and Italy!   In the meantime, the bronze medal had been won by China who met with no real difficulties to get over France. The Asians led the match from the beginning to the end, increasing their advantage on the way: 56-54, 108-105, 161-155 and 216-209.   Compound Men Good result for Venezuela in the Compound Men team competition with a run that stops in quarter-finals versus no. 2 Great Britain (228-223). The top team Netherlands lost all hopes at the same stage of competition with an unpredicted defeat to neighbours Belgium (224-221). No. 3 France had an easy match to no. 11 Russia (227-219) to reach the semi-finals. The fourth qualified team was Denmark (seed 5) with two strong matches to Slovenia (226-221) and Germany (226-218).   The two semi-finals then were very tight and the archers showed a very high level of shooting. In the first match Denmark proved too strong for Belgium at the end with a score of 229 to 226 points. The second match between France and Great Britain was even tighter with a final score of 226-224 for the former.   In the bronze medal match, the Belgian archers paid back its previous efforts shooting a low 214 while the British scored ten points higher (224) to take the bronze home. Denmark will be facing France this afternoon for the gold.      Russian TeamCompound Women New world record in this category for the Russian team of Oktyabrina Bolotova, Sofia Goncharova and Anna Kazantseva! Their first match of the day against the host team Turkey was just amazing with a 231 final score, one point higher than the previous world record.   Pointless to say that the Russian archers had no difficulties reaching the gold medal match that will be held this afternoon and will open the live TV coverage on TRT, RAI and the Polish national channel. Russia will meet USA, of course, for gold after Jahna Davis, Joahn Fleury and Jamie Van Natta had no problem to get over Italy by 10 points (226-216) in semi-final.   The bronze medal in Compound Women was played between the surprising Venezuelans and the Italians. The South American archers, who had previously defeated France by a hair’s breadth, could not withstand the Italian superiority (223-213) this time and had to let third place go to their European opponents.   We are looking forward to exciting gold matches this afternoon between great archery teams starting at 5:00 pm (local time) and LIVE on television!   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication