19 April 2008 - Chinese Taipei, China, Italy and Great Britain win Team Gold Medals

Chinese Taipei, China, Italy and Great Britain win Team Gold Medals
Porec - 19 April 2008
 
Saturday morning featured all team finals of the World Cup Stage 2 in Porec. The venue for these matches was once more an exceptional place: the archers were shooting in the Marina! Asia took the two gold medals in the Recurve division with Chinese Taipei winning the men's competition and China the women's. In Compound the Italian men and the British ladies delivered two victories to Europe.
Read our live commentaries of all morning matches!
Recurve Men   Gold Medal: CHINESE TAIPEI - ITALY
Champion of the Olympic Games 2004 Galiazzo took the line first for Italy and shot an 8. His teammates Di Buo and Nespoli scored 10 and 8 (26). The team of Chinese Taipei tied the third three arrows with 8-10-8 (26). Italy followed with a strong X10-9-X10 (55) taking the lead by 4 pts after Chinese Taipei shot 8-X10-7 (51). Kuo, Cheng and Wang put pressure with a perfect series of 10-10-10 (81). The Italians gave up the lead scoring 9-8-7 (79). Their opponents continued with solid shooting and 9-X10-9 (109). They increased their advantage to three pts thanks to the "Azzurri" scoring 8-9-10 (106). The Olympic Champion and his teammates started the third end with three 9s (133). With 10-7-10 (136) Chinese Taipei kept the situation unchanged. With another triple 9, Team Italy totalling 160 pts with six arrows to go. The archers from Chinese Taipei managed to hang on thanks to 9-8-10 (163). Galiazzo, Di Buo and Nespoli achieved 10-10-8 (188) respectively. Kuo, Cheng and Wang maintained a 3-point lead with 9-9-10 (191) before the last three arrows. The Italians finished with 9-10-9 and 216 pts, not enough to end in front of the archers from Chinese Taipei who clinched the gold medal with X10-9-8 and 218 pts.
  Bronze Medal: FRANCE - INDIA
Talukdar opened with a 10 for India. Champia and Banerjee with 9 and 10 (29). Valladont started for the French team with 10 and his teammates Aubert and Girouille continued with 8 and 9. They were trailing by 2 pts with 27. The French deficit remained after six arrows with both teams shooting a series of 10-8-10 (55-57). Valladont with his third 10 in a row, Aubert also with a 10 and Girouille with 8 for a total of 83 pts. The Indian team shot 9-9-10 and maintained a 2-point lead (85). France then scored 9-9-8 and had 109 pts at the half. With 9-9-8 India was still ahead on 111 pts. The third end started with a 10-9-8 series for both teams (138-136 for India). A triple 9 followed for the French with the last arrow being shot on the clock! They tied the match at 163, after their contenders shot 8-9-8. The two teams were very close and nobody could predict who would be the winner... Banerjee, Champia and Talukdar shot a strong series with 9-X10-10 (192). France, with a bad 9-6-8 (186) trailed by 6 pts at that time. Scoring 9-10-9 (220), the Indians clinched the match even before their opponents had shot their final arrows! Girouille and teammates finished with 8-10-9 (213).
  Recurve Women   Gold Medal: CHINA - POLAND
World Cup 2006 winner Zhang took the line first for China and scored 9. Her teammates Guo and Chen shot 8 and 9 respectively. Mospinek started for the Polish team with a 9. Cwienczek followed with 8 and Marcinkiewicz with 10. Poland took the lead by 1 pt (27-26). The Polish ladies increased their lead in the next three arrows with 8-10-9 (54) versus 8-7-9 (50) for the Chinese. Zhang and teammates followed with 9-4-9 (72). Poland, with 8-8-7, gained one more point (77). Half-way through the match the Chinese had 96 pts (7-8-9). Their opponents took a 6-point lead with 8-8-7 and 102 pts. Team China's shooting seemed to get better with X10-9-8 (123). With 9-10-7 Poland lost 1 pt (128). Led by experienced Zhang, the Chinese achieved a perfect 10-10-10 series and put pressure on their contenders (153). Only a 1-point advantage was left to Poland (9-8-9/154) before the last end! Team China scored three 9s (180). The score was tied with three arrows remaining after Poland shot 10-8-8. The Chinese finished with 8-8-9 and 205 pts. Mospinek and teammates could not handle it and lost the match with 8-6-9 (203). China would leave Porec with the gold medal!
  Bronze Medal: KOREA - GREAT BRITAIN
It is the first time ever that the Korean ladies were not shooting for gold in a team event. They faced Great Britain for bronze on Saturday afternoon. In windy conditions at the marina Joo opened with a 5 for Korea. Yun and Olympic Champion Park followed with 10 and 8 (23). Great Britain was trailing by 1 with 8-8-6 (22). Korea went on with a triple 9 (50) but its contender recovered the lead with 10-10-9 (51). The score was tied at 76 after nine arrows as the Koreans shot 8-9-9 and the British 9-8-8. Joo, Yun and Park then scored 10-10-8 (104). Folkard, Downie and Burgess took the lead back with 10-9-10 (105). Trailing behind it was still Korea shooting first. The no. 1 seeded team Korea managed a strong 10-9-10 (133). The situation turned around at the beginning of the third end with Great Britain shooting 6-7-2 (!) With 120 pts on the board it was now their turn to trail. The Koreans were more consistent with 9-10-9 (161) compared to Folkard and teammates (10-6-6/142). There was no hope left for recovery for Team GBR in the last six arrows. They finished with 8-7-9-9-7-9 (191) and the Koreans clinched the match before the last arrow with 8-X10-X10-10-8-9 (216).
  Compound Men   Gold Medal: ITALY - SWEDEN
The match started with 9-9-10-9-9-X10 (56) for Italy and 9-10-9-9-9-10 (56)for Sweden. The score was tied after the first end of six arrows. Italy would thus be shooting first again on target 1. Pagni scored 9 and his teammates Tosco and Girardo shot 10 and 9 respectively (84). Lundin, Carlsson and Malm tied with 10-10-8 (84). Team Italy rotated its order of shooting with Pagni shooting last in the second part of the end and managed 10-10-9 (113). This seemed to pay off, as the Italians took a 2-point lead after their opponents shot a triple 9 (111). World Champion Lundin shot a 6 followed by two 9s by his fellow countrymen (135). The Italians scored another strong series with 9-10-10 (142) and took a substantial lead of 7 pts. The deficit of the Swedish did not change with six arrows to go with 10-8-9 (162) against 9-8-10 (169) for Italy. The "Azzurri's" lead increased to 8 pts thanks to 9-10-9 (197) versus 9-8-10 (189) for the Swedish archers. Lundin and teammates finished with 10-8-8 (215). Shooting three 9s the Italians managed to win gold with 224 pts!
  Bronze Medal: GREAT BRITAIN - AUSTRALIA
The opening arrows were 9-8-9 (26) for Team Great Britain and 10-7-10 (27) for Australia. The British athletes followed with 10-10-8 (54), while the "Aussies" shot 10-10-9 and took a 2-point lead after the first end. Grimwood, Shaw and Wakelin matched this with 10-10-9 (83) and managed to recover as their opponents scored a triple 9 (83). The situation turned around when the team of Great Britain lost one arrow due to time (!) With 10-8-M they were totalling only 101 pts at the half-way mark and trailed by 8 (8-9-9/109 for Australia). The British lost one more point with 10-7-10 (128) against 10-9-10 (137) for the Aussies. The next three arrows allowed the archers from Great Britain to recover a little (10-9-9), thanks to a 6 and two 9s by their opponents. The score was 156-161 with six arrows to go. Great Britain continued strongly with 9-10-10 (185) and clawed back three more points, Australia shooting 10-8-9 (188). The final arrows were going to be dramatic! Grimwood and his teammates shot first as they were trailing the match and managed a 9-9-8 (211). Coghlan, Lee and Timms started the last series with a 10 and everyone thought the bronze was theirs, but they then scored a low 4 (!) They needed a 10 to win and a 9 to tie, but it was a final 7 for them and to hand victory to Great Britain!
  Compound Women   Gold Medal: FRANCE - GREAT BRITAIN
No. 1 seeded France faced Great Britain for the gold medal. After the first end of six arrows the British ladies were leading by 1 pt 53-52 after they shot 8-9-9-9-8-9 and their opponents 8-8-9-10-9-9. Very difficult conditions in the harbour on Saturday morning with the wind blowing strongly! In such conditions the Frenchwoman Bouillot hit the 2 ring (!) after her teammates shot 8-6. They were trailing by 13 pts (109-181) as the British scored 9-10-9. The deficit stayed the same at the half-way mark at 95-108. The teams followed with 10-10-8 by France and 9-9-10 by Great Britain and the score was 123-136. No change with the following three arrows (10-8-8 versus 9-8-9): France still trailed by 13 at 149-162. Bouillot, Favre and Trayan started the last end with 9-10-9 (177), while Holderness, Simpson and Hunt shot 8-9-8 (187). It was then a 10-point lead for GBR. France finished strongly with 9-9-10 (205) and put some pressure on their opponents. However, with 8-6-8 the ladies from Great Britain managed to hold their nerves and the wind to clinch gold with 209 pts.
  Bronze Medal: BELGIUM - RUSSIA
On the line first for Belgium, Willems shot 10. The second Belgian archer followed with a 10 as well. The third arrow was an 8 and Belgium totalled 28 pts. Goncharova started for Russia with 10 and her teammate Novikova with another 10. Loginova went on with an 8 and the score was tied. Team Belgium scored 9-10-10 and had 57 pts after the first end of six arrows. Russia with 9-8-10 was trailing by two (55-57). The Russians continued with 9-9-10 and had 83 pts so far. Their opponents shot 9-8-10 and lost 1 pt (84-83). World Cup 2006 winner Goncharova and teammates then shot 9-7-9 (108), while the Belgians scored 10-10-9, increasing their lead to 5 pts (113) at the half-way mark. The Russians started in the third end as they were trailing. With 8-10-10 they had 136 pts at the time . Belgium maintained the lead with 10-8-7 (138). Goncharova scored 7 and teammates followed with a double 9 (161) to finish their third end. The Belgian ladies with 9-7-10 kept a 3-point advantage with six arrows to go (164). Russia shot 8-7-9 and Belgium scored 8-8-6. The Russians came back to one point with only three arrows to go (185-186)! They put pressure on their opponents with 10-8-10... the Belgians finished with a strong 9-10-9 to win the bronze medal by 1 pt (214-213).
 
Ludivine Maitre Wicki
FITA Communication
 
NB: X10 and 10 are both worth 10 points. X10 were mentioned for information whenever possible. The arrows are mentioned in order whenever possible.