3 August 2007 - Golden Hit for the Mixed Team Event

Golden Hit for the Mixed Team Event! Dover – 3 August 2007   The Mixed Team Event, a historical first for FITA, was a big success Friday afternoon in Dover. Everybody, archers, fans and officials just loved it! Archery broke new frontiers by mixing both gender and nationality in this event.   Talented archers, team spirit, international friendship, a great atmosphere with the fans and some rock’ n roll music brought smiles to everyone’s face during the Mixed Team Event. We enjoyed:   Ø      Two competitions with 16 Recurve Mixed Teams and 16 Compound Mixed Teams.   Ø      Each team was composed of one woman and one man from two different countries.   Ø      Scoring was based on Hit/Miss/yellow (9+10) was a hit/122 cm target face for Recurve, 80 cm for Compound.   Ø      4 ends of 6 arrows – 3 arrows per archer – 2 minutes for 6 arrows.   These conditions levelled the field of play a little and the key for the archers was to quickly get some team chemistry going with people that they had never shot with before! Moreover, the 80 cm target face at 70 meters was a true challenge for the compound archers.  Recurve Mixed Team The local lass and 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Williamson seemed to have great fun with her new male team-mate of the afternoon, the Russian Abramov! In this “first time ever” competition shot according to the “hit/miss” system, she had a very close and high level match in the 1/8 round against Hurkmans (NED) and Zupanc (SLO): 18-17 out of a possible 24. In the second round of the afternoon, the team Abramov/Williamson beat their team-mates Peart (GBR)/Erdyniyeva (RUS) on the same score of 18-17.   Going on to the semi-final the two had another big challenge facing the 2006 Varese World Cup winner Frangilli (ITA) who was teamed with the Swedish girl Jeppsson on this occasion. However, at the end Abramov/Williamson managed an easy victory by 14-10 to reach the gold medal match where they faced Kravacek (SVK)/Tseng (TPE).   On their way to this final the man from Slovakia and the lady from Chinese Taipei had to deal with Callewaert (BEL) and Tseng’s team-mate Tai (TPE) first. This first match was proved an easy one for them and they won by 18-10. As they advanced, the unseen duels proved to be tighter and tighter. In the quarterfinal Kravacek/Tseng defeated Callaway (GBR)/Rieznikova (UKR) on a final score of 16-12. They then faced recent World Championships silver medallist Tsyrempilov (RUS) who was paired with local Downie (GBR) for this afternoon’s competition. Kravacek/Tseng earned the right to meet Abramov/Williamson for the first ever FITA Mixed Team Challenge title by beating Tsyrempilov/Downie by 15-11.   In the gold match of the Recurve division the local favourite Williamson started perfectly with three hits to give her team a 1-point lead after the first end of six arrows (4-3). The Abramov/Williamson team then doubled their advantage at the half-way mark (8-6) against Kravacek/Tseng. The Russian and the Briton managed to maintain this lead after the third end (11-9) and to the end of this last match of the day (13-11) to win this first ever Recurve Mixed Team competition!    Compound Mixed Team It seems that the team that “high-fived” the most kept rolling on to success. The surprising pair of Sigauskas (LTU)/Guedez (VEN) shot really well for the whole competition. They shot 17 points (hits) in the first round to beat Grimwood (GBR)/Svensen (NOR). Then they beat a formidable pair composed of Brasseur (FRA)/Eicsson (SWE), 13-9 and went on to achieve the highest score of the competition (18 points) to defeat Wakelin (GBR) – Van Natta (USA) in their semi-finals.   Another Venezuelan woman who had a lot of success was Montes. She was paired with Wilde L. They won 14-13 versus Olifrerow (VEN)/Dessoy (BEL) in the first round and then went on to beat the Norwegian Vangen (a para archer) and the Australian Anear, 12-10. They had a dramatic semi-final versus Boe (NOR)/Loginova (RUS). Wilde and Montes were trailing 2-4 after six arrows and 5-7 after twelve shots. They earned a small edge 10-9 after 18 arrows, but the match ended tied at 12 points. Each archer shot one arrow for the shoot-off. Both Wilde and Montes hit the gold, while their opponents only achieved one hit.  To the excitement of all the fans, we therefore had two Venezuelan women in the final! The Sigauskas/Guedez team kept being the showmen and dominated the match one more time. They led 4-3, 7-6, and 13-9 to conclude on 15-12! Wilde/Montes got 2nd place and Wakelin – Van Natta achieved 3rd place.   There were some really big name archers such as World Champions Goncharova (RUS), Ericsson (SWE) and Frangilli (ITA), recent medallists like Gellenthien (USA), Tsyrempilov (RUS), Erdyniyeva (RUS) and top archers such as Jimenez (ESA), Brasseur (FRA) and many others competing. They all enjoyed the competition very much (please see our quotes) and wish to do it again in the near future!   Prizes were awarded to the winners by Hoyt, Easton arrows, Danage and Socx Arrows.   FITA Secretary General Tom Dielen declared: “the Mixed Team event today proved that this could be a very valuable competition for FITA. For instance, we will propose such an event in the archery program of the new Youth Olympic Games. FITA will also look for formats of Mixed Team Events that could be included in future elite events such as the World Championships.”   FITA would like to thank those who donated prizes and all the people involved for staging such a successful competition.   Didier Miéville/Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication