1 August 2007 - Dover Qualifications half-way mark

Dover Qualifications half-way mark Dover - 1 August 2007  All categories –Recurve Men, Recurve Women, Compound Men and Compound Women– started competing in Stage 4 of the Meteksan Archery World Cup 2007. The competition in Dover is the final leg of the year and will decide on who will qualify for the Grand Final in November.   Today is qualification day for all archers. In total they will shoot four rounds of 36 arrows, respectively at distances of: 

- 90, 70, 50 and 30 metres for men 
- 70, 60, 50 and 30 metres for women

Here are the intermediate results after the first two distances (long):
  Recurve Men After 36 arrows at 90 metres the Polish archer Piatek ranked 1st with 318 points. He was leading Olympic Champion Galiazzo (ITA) at that point by two points (316) and another Italian Di Buo by four points (314). The 70m distance gave rise to some changes in the leading positions of the Recurve Men category. Shooting the 19th score at this distance, Piatek (POL) lost two places and was 3rd at the half-way mark of qualifications with 643 points. Galiazzo (ITA) took the lead at that time with 646. Second was Terry (GBR) and 4th was Di Buo (ITA), both on 643. The greatest leap forward was for the Mexican Serrano who, after ranking 18th at 90m, shot the best score of the 70m round to take a temporary 5th place with 641 points.

In the team competition Italy was 1st after the first distance with 933 points and a 9-point advantage over their closest pursuer the local team of Great Britain (924). Germany was placed 3rd on 906, closely followed by the Dutch (904) and the Poles (903). No change in the first three positions after 70m, with Italy increasing their lead from 9 to 14 points (1927) over Great Britain, 2nd on 1913. Germany was still 3rd with 1878. Poland (1872) and China (1864) were ranked 4th and 5th respectively after the Netherlands lost two places to rank 6th (1864).
  Recurve Women The 2006 World Cup winner China’s Zhang made an early, important difference scoring 336 points out of a possible 360. Her closest pursuer, Cwienczek from Poland trailed by six points after the first distance (70m). Behind these two archers came India’s Swuro (326), Russia’s Erdyniyeva, Ukraine’s Koval (325) and Italy’s Lionetti (324). Zhang (CHN) took advantage of the second distance (60m) to increase her lead from 6 to 11 points for a total of 683. Koval (UKR) rose from 5th to 2nd place with a total of 662 points. She was closely followed by Cwienczek (POL) on 660 and the Polish archer, Mospinek, leapt forward from 13th to 4th place with 659, thanks to shooting the second best score of the distance (337).

The team event in this category was tight after the first distance with Italy first on 967 points chased by India on 963. China was third on 958 points. No change in the first two positions after the first two distances, with Italy maintaining the lead on 1959 points after the first two distances. India still trailed in 2nd place on 1956. China lost one rank and was 4th half-way on 1946 points and it was Poland who benefited from this, leaping up to 3rd position with an intermediary total of 1946 points.
   Compound Men Very close competition in the Compound Men category with Jimenez (ESA) 1st after the 90m distance on 341 points, Gellenthien (USA) 2nd on 340 and Brasseur (FRA) 3rd on 339. Just behind these three were two archers on 337 points: British White and Swiss Hofer. An excellent second distance for Boe (NOR) with the best score at 70m: 354 out of a possible 360 and a leap forward from 8th to 4th place (688)! Gellenthien took the lead from Jimenez. With 690 points the American was provisionally 1st before White (GBR) 2nd and Jimenez (ESA) 3rd, both on 689. Hofer (SUI) kept his 5th position on 688 points, while Brasseur (FRA) lost three places and was then ranked 6th on 683.

In the team event the USA unsurprisingly ranked first after the first distance on 1001 points and a comfortable advantage over 2nd Great Britain (989). Two teams followed on the same score of 973 points, namely Slovenia and Switzerland. Half-way through qualification round, the USA and Great Britain maintained 1st and 2nd places on 2040 and 2027 points respectively. Switzerland benefited from the 70m distance to take a considerable advantage over Slovenia: the Swiss archers took temporary 3rd place on 1992, while the Slovenians were 4th on 1984.     Compound Women It was the Swede Ericsson (346 points) who led this category after 36 arrows with a 2-point lead over the Russian Goncharova (344). Slovenia’s Marcen was already five points behind at 3rd place on 339. She was closely followed by Van Natta (USA) on 338, Handayani (INA) and Davis (USA), both on 337. With the second best score at 60m Ericsson (SWE) kept her lead on 698 points. She increased her advantage over Goncharova (RUS) to seven points with the Russian was still ranked 2nd at that time on 691, just one point ahead of Van Natta (USA), who with the best score of the distance was placed 3rd on 690. Only able to shoot the 20th 60m score, Marcen (SLO) dropped from 3rd to 10th (672).

Only four teams entered this category’s team competition. After the 70m distance Venezuela was leading on 997 points. In second place was Indonesia on 993, third was Great Britain (988) and fourth was Turkey (978). After the second distance Venezuela had increased their lead to nine points on a score of 2013 points over the local team on 2004. Indonesia was still 3rd on 1994 and Turkey 4th with 1981.

There are still a lot of arrows to be shot this afternoon to decide on the qualification ranking, with the two short distances (50m and 30m) to go!
   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication