The Team Finals put an end to the WUAC 2008

Compound Men Gold Final: Italy vs. Mexico      When asked, most of the archers agree with one thing: “The team competition is the funniest one” and they “love to shoot in the team”. The hit/miss concept is also welcomed. The best teams still win, but the intensity of the match is kept until the last arrows, as the differences between the scores are not as high as when using the regular target faces from 10 to 1 points. Any team not leading the match has the opportunity to come back with only a few hits.   The weather was cloudy and very humid (89%) again today. It rained all night and the field was quite wet. Of course, humidity felt heavy on the archers, but at least there was not too much wind.   In Compound Men the leading and favourite team USA was defeated by Italy in 1/4 final: 22 hits to 21. It was an intensive match from the beginning to the very last arrow. Kicking USA out of the competition, Italy felt like gold was for them and nobody had counted with the no. 3 team Mexico. The Mexicans advanced with pretty hard matches. In 1/4 final they tied with Malaysia with 19 hits each. After two shoot-offs, Mexico won by one single hit (2-3). In 1/2 finals the South American team faced France. This was another tough match, where France lost by one hit: 21 to 22. Mexico ended up in the final fighting for gold against Italy. They completed a great round finishing with 18 hit against 16 for the Italians. For the bronze medal, Belgium defeated France 21 to 20 hits. All fantastic matches!   Six teams competed in the Compound Women category. Korea and USA were the favourite teams, but again the competition created some upsets. Korea reached the gold final with 23 hits (FISU World Record) against Italy. For their part, USA lost against Russia 22 to 20 hits in the other semi-final and could only fight for bronze. The American girls defeated Italy and won the bronze medal with 23 hits against 14. The gold medal match saw another exciting shoot-off. After the 24 arrows, Russia and Korea were tied 21-21. The first three tie-break arrows ended up 3-3. The second additional series of three arrows was again 3-3! The last shoot-off, if equal, would be decided by measuring the arrow closest to the centre. This was the case at 2-2! Therefore, the judges needed to make an accurate measurement. It ended up that best arrow of Team Korea was closer to the centre than the closest one shot by Russia. Korea won the gold medal by only “millimetres” and could celebrate it with all the team, coaches and officials present in the field. It could not have been a better final! Three shoot-off series and an amazing tension while waiting to know what arrow was the closest. Amazing!   In Recurve Men, after the level showed in the qualification round, the expected final was Chinese Taipei versus Korea. No surprises here! Both teams advanced to the gold medal match. Only Korea faced some difficulties in semi-final against Spain, which they won by one point in the last arrow after a tense match (16-15). Chinese Taipei advanced to the final without “sweating” at all. The final remained open to both teams until the end of the 24 arrows, when Chinese managed one more hit than Korea (19-18). And the volunteers, all the media representatives and organisers could celebrate the victory of the local team! Poland faced Spain for bronze. The two teams were tied at the end of the match (17-17). They could decide the winner neither after the first shoot-off (3-3) nor after the second (2-2). It was again necessary to go to a third tie-break and measure the closest arrow if the score remained tied. Both Poland and Spain scored three hits, but it was Poland’s arrow closest to the centre. Poland won the bronze medal and Spain finished 4th.      Recurve Women Semi-Final: Korea vs. Japan What could then be expected in Recurve Women? Korea advanced to the gold medal match beating all their opponents with clear superiority. In the final match they met Russia who beat Germany in the quarter-final after two shoot-offs (12-12, 3-3, 1-0). They then used their motivation beating Chinese Taipei 16-11 in semi-final. In the gold medal match led from the very first arrow and finished with 16-10 to clinch victory. The intensity in Recurve Women came with the bronze medal match! After shooting all their arrows, Japan—who eliminated Poland (12-11) in 1/4 and lost against Korea in 1/2—were tied with Chinese Taipei 14-14 hits. After 2 shoot-offs, Japan won a well deserved bronze medal!   What an intense day, which it is not over yet! The Mixed Team competition followed just after. The best female and male archers of each country formed pairs in the Recurve and Compound divisions. The top 8 teams in both divisions went to the elimination phase (1/4 finals). The competition and format was well received by everybody. It is “FUN”! It is “intense”! It is “different”. The format used the same Hit/Miss target faces. In Recurve, Malaysia faced Chinese Taipei for the gold. The pair of Malaysia shot really well, but they could not beat the strong team of Chinese Taipei. The match ended 9-7. Spain met Japan for the bronze medal. This time, Spain did not want to get a 4th place (already one in individual and one in team) and defeated Japan 10-7 hits.   Compound Mixed Team Podium    In Compound, everybody expected a final between USA and Korea, but Russia was looking hard for a gold medal and found the right moment to fight for it in the mixed team event. After their 16 arrows, the scoreboards showed 15-15. In the shoot-off USA won 2 hits against 1 to take the gold!   The competition was interrupted a couple of times because of heavy showers. However, this did not decrease the level of the matches, the excellent atmosphere of competition, fair sportsmanship and friendship. The Championships closed up with the medal ceremonies. The organisers did a good job delivering very well organised championships in difficult weather conditions.   The next meeting of University Archery will be in the Universiades 2009 in Belgrade. See you all there! The pictures of the day...   Juan Carlos Holgado FITA Communication