1 June 2007 - Russia, Korea, France and USA victorious in the team event

Russia, Korea, France and USA victorious in the team event Antalya – 1 June 2007   The team gold medal matches were kept for the afternoon session. They were truly exciting as all the archery fans and direct television viewers gathered around the final field of the Meteksan Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Antalya.  Compound Women The American and Russian compound ladies were the first to take the field this afternoon. After USA opened with 28 points, Russia’s Kazantseva, shooting first in her team, scored a 9. She was followed by Bolotova with a 10, who was imitated by Goncharova just afterwards with a second 10. Van Natta, shooting first in the US team, then scored 9 points just out of the 10 ring, followed by two other 9s by Fleury and Davis and a temporary total of 55. The Russian Federation shooting 9-7-9 were trailing the American team by 1 point (54).   In the second end, Russia started with a triple 9, while USA went on with 10-7-9. The score was tied after 9 arrows at 81-81! The Russians then shot 9-8-9. Russia had only two 10s so far… an unusual shooting for them! The USA shot their third 10 that was followed by two 9s. Halfway, USA was leading by two points: 109-107 and Russia was to shoot first in the next end.   Great shooting with 10-10-9 and a big improvement for the Russian girls! Van Natta then reached the dead centre (X10), Fleury shot a 9 and Davis another 10. USA was only leading by one small point at that time (138-137). With another 10-10-9 series, Russia had scored 165 points after 18 arrows and took back the advantage in this match (165-164) with one end remaining… USA was therefore to shoot first in the last end and started with an almost perfect end (10-10-9). Russia followed with 27 points (10-9-8), leaving again the lead to the opponent. The Americans finished with 10-9-9 with their last three arrows for a total score of 221 out of a possible 240. The Russians closed the match with 9-8-10, bowing before the American ladies by two points (221-219).   Compound Men For the second match of the afternoon, France was facing Denmark in Compound Men. Genet opened the match with a 9 for France. Beaud scored 8 and Brasseur 10 for a temporary 27 points. Denmark then took the field and shot a triple 9 to tie the after three arrows. France went on with two 10s and an 8. Nielsen delivered a 9 for Denmark, his team-mates shooting another 9 and a 10 to tie the score again at 55!   As a result, France had to again shoot first in the second end. They started with 9-9-10 (83) and were followed by Nielsen with a 9, Christensen with another 9 and Damsbo with a 10 for Denmark and a new tie at 83 points! With the French archers shooting two 10s and a 9, there was a possibility for Denmark to take the lead in the middle of the match, but to achieve that, they had to shoot a perfect end… Unfortunately for them, they could do no better that an average series (9-8-10) and left the lead to France.   It was thus Denmark’s turn to open the second half of the match, which they did almost perfectly with 29 points and were imitated by France. Denmark, with another 29 end, lost an additional point to France who shot a perfect 10-10-10 series! The level of the match was getting higher and higher as the end was approaching… While the Danish scored 10-8-9, their opponents added another perfect end, meaning a total of twelve 10s so far for France! This increased their advantage to five points. Denmark finished with 10-10-9 and a final score of 225 points, to leave France with its fate in their hands… 9-10-10 and “médaille d’or” for France (230-225)!   Recurve Women The team competition then turned to the recurve category, starting with the women. Choi, Lee and Park representing Korea and Valeeva, Perosini and Lionetti for Italy took the field. The Italians started first on target no. 2 with a 7 and two 9s for a total of 25. The Koreans, for their part, opened their match with a 9-9-8 (26). Italy then shot 8-9-8, whereas the Koreans, with a 9-7-9 series, kept their one point lead (52-51). These were unusually low scores for both teams!   Italy went on with three low arrows on the target (9-8-8). Korea scored an almost perfect 10-10-9 series for a temporary total of 80 points out of a possible 90. Unfortunately, the Italians could not raise their level (8-9-9) and left Korea the opportunity to extend their advantage to six points (107-101).   There were 12 arrows to go now, when Valeeva and her team-mates shot an even lower 8-6-8 series. With Choi just out of the 10 ring and two other 9s both for Lee and Park, Korea was in the lead by 134-123. Italy improved with their next three arrows (10-9-9), but could not gain points, Korea shot 10-8-10 and kept their eleven point advantage (162-151). This was enough for the Korean favourites to secure victory and establish their domination even more (218-204).  Recurve Men A great day today for the Dutch archers who reached the gold final in Recurve Men! Custers, Van Alten and Van der Hoff were helped on the way by the Ukrainians who kicked the favourite team Korea out of the competition earlier in the morning. The Netherlands were facing Badenov, Sidorin and Tsyrempilov of Russia in the last match of the day.   The Russians opened the match with 10-9-9 (28) and the Dutch followed with 7-8-9 (24). The next three arrows for Russia were 9-9-10 for a total of 56 points after the first end. There was already an eight point lead for the archers from Eastern Europe, before Netherlands scored another low series of 7-9-8 (48). The Dutch could improve in the second with a 10, followed by a 9 and another 10. The Russians with 9-9-9 let their opponents come back to a six point difference (83-77). However, Netherlands with 8-8-9 (102) saw Russia shoot a triple 9 and increase their lead to eight points again.   The match went on as it started with a low 7 point shot, but then a great 10 just in the centre and a good 9 for Netherlands. Another strong 9-9-9 series and a big smile on Tsyrempilov’s face! The Dutch had a 155 total after 18 arrows and were trailing their opponents by eight points (163-155) at the time. Russia kept its lead in the last end. Custers and team-mates finished on a triple 9, while Tsyrempilov and his fellow countrymen added a 9-7-9 series and a team victory to their list of archery achievements. Final score for this match: 209-216.   The FITA team, all archers in Antalya and archery fans all around the world are looking forward to exciting individual medal matches tomorrow starting again at 4:30 pm (local time). All these new matches will also be broadcast LIVE on TRT and the Polish national channel!   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication