23 August 2007 - Beijing Test Event: Upsets in the Women’s 1/16 eliminations!

Upsets in the Women’s 1/16 eliminations! Beijing - 23 August 2007   A few of the favourites went down in the second round of the Women Recurve matches. The Korean LEE T. Y., the Indoor World Champion HAYAKAWA (JPN) and ERDYNIYEVA (RUS) lost their second matches.   Karen SCAVOTTO (ITA) vs. Nami HAYAKAWA (JPN)    The Recurve Women Individual competitors took the Court A and B in the Olympic stadium and they played their 1/32 and 1/16 eliminations matches. The archers shoot four ends of three arrows. They alternate to shoot each arrow and have 30 seconds each time.   The two strong Koreans PARK Sung-Hyun and CHOI Eun Young who only played once today after being granted BYE’s into the 1/16 round, both earned their place in Saturday’s 1/8 elimination round. CHOI beat Columbian archer Ana Maria RENDON 113-108, and PARK’s victory came against Pia Carmen LIONETTI (ITA), as she cleared her opponent by 13 points, 109-96.    However, it was not to be for the third member of the Korean team, who took the gold in the team event yesterday. LEE Tuk Young (KOR) who also had a BYE directly into the 1/16 elimination round, was up against Malgorzata CWIENCZEK from Poland. The match came down to the final arrow, 104-103, with CWIENCZEK finally emerging as the first in the tournament to defeat a Korean in a head to head. CWIENCZEK has been in good shape recently taking the 3rd place at the Dover World Cup Stage early August and climbing to the 7th place in the World Cup Ranking.   Fellow Polish team-mate Iwona MARCINKIEWICZ also made it through to the 1/8 elimination round following her win over Anna LIM (KAZ), 107-99 and then Chinese Taipei’s SHEN Hsiao Chun 109-105. MARCINKIEWICZ will now have the most difficult task as she is set to face PARK in the next round.   The USA will leave the field very pleased as all three members of the women’s team have qualified positions for Saturday. Jennifer NICHOLS, after a BYE in the 1/32 round, defeated Veronika HAIDN-TSCHALOVA (GER) 107-104. Khatuna LORIG won over Tetyana BEREZHNA (UKR), 109-104.  Karen SCAVOTTO beat Sigrid ROMERO from Columbia in the first elimination round before meeting tournament no. 6 seed, Nami HAYAKAWA (JPN). HAYAKAWA was then eliminated from the tournament, losing to SCAVOTTO with the surprising result of 104-99. HAYAKAWA noted the changing winds as one of the reasons for her early exit.      ZHANG Juan Juan (CHN) The current number 1 in the world, Natalya ERDYNIYEVA, also suffered from defeat in the second round. The young and talented Russian had nevertheless a heavy task in playing local favourite and World Cup 2006 winner ZHANG Juan Juan. The Russian started with a perfect 30, but then went into trouble shooting 8-9-8 and later on a 6 with her seventh arrow. ZHANG was by far more consistent, shooting an impressive 9-10-10, 9-9-9, 10-8-10, 9-10-10 and tied the best total of the day at 113 points. She defeated ERDYNIYEVA 113-107 and finally gave the Chinese fans a chance to cheer for their own country. The fans have been good sports to every archer in the competition!   Louise LAURSEN (DEN) had a comfortable lead in her first round match against Haruyo SAKURAZAWA (JPN) 82-77 after nine arrows. She blew it in the last end scoring an unlucky 7-7-7. The match finished tied at 103. Both archers shot one arrow in a sudden-death shoot-off (tie break) and LAURSEN survived scoring 9, to her opponent’s 8. The Dane then had the difficult task of facing the no. 5 seed (based on ranking round), Viktoria KOVAL (UKR) in the 1/16 eliminations. KOVAL got an early lead 29-26 which she kept until the sixth arrow 55-52. Then both archers shot a 10 and LAURSEN committed the worst. She scored a 1 due to a bad release with her finger. There was no way she could come back after this and KOVAL won 109-97.   One of the best matches of the day was with Alison WILLIAMSON from Great Britain versus the local favourite HE Ying. WILLIAMSON had the better start, leading 28-26. HE came back at a 1-point deficit, 55-54. The British then shot 8-10-10, one point less than the Chinese 9-10-10. So the archers were tied at 83 points. Then both archers shot two 9s and it came down to the final arrow to win the match. WILLAMSON shot 8 and HE earned a 9 to move on to the 1/16 Eliminations. The scores were high, 110-109 for HE. She then faced the no. 1 seed Justyna MOSPINEK from Poland. They were tied at 26 points after three arrows. The wind rose and MOSPINEK shot a 7, but HE could not do better than a 5. The Polish archer followed through with two 10s and the Chinese archer could never come back despite an honourable finish. Total score: 108-103 for MOSPINEK.   To conclude the day, Nathalie DIELEN from Switzerland created a surprise in defeating Elena TONETTA (ITA). DIELEN took advantage of a 6 from Tonetta in the first end to lead 27-24. TONETTA came back after six arrows (51-51) and took the lead after nine, 77-76. However, the Italian then scored a 5 and 6 and the Swiss shot a lucky (in China) 8-8-8 to conclude a good performance and win the match 100-97. DIELEN then moved on to face the Virginie ARNOLD (FRA). The Swiss was leading 75-73 but ARNOLD came back in the last end scoring 8-10-10 to tie the match at 101. In the shoot-off, ARNOLD’s 9 was better than DIELEN’s 7 and the French archer will play the no. 1 seed MOSPINEK in the 1/8 of final on Saturday.   Tomorrow, the men shoot their 1/32 and 1/16 eliminations.   Stay tuned for more action from Beijing!   Didier Miéville FITA Communication