Four Junior World Champions for the Future of Archery

 The Compound Junior Women started the finals on Sunday afternoon before the Recurve Men put an end to a brilliant World Championhips. Like the elite, the juniors shoot 4 ends of three arrows at 70 meters. They alternate for each arrow. Here are our live commentaries.   Recurve Junior Men Gold Medal: Rodrigo LASTRA (MEX) – Luca MELOTTO (ITA) MELOTTO had the best start with 8-10-10 and led 28-25. He stayed solid the whole match and doubled his advantage after three ends, 80-74. LASTRA finished with 9-9-8 but that was not enough to put pressure on MELOTTO. The Italian scored 9-9-10 to clinch the gold medal with a score of 108-100. MELOTTO is the new World Champion and there will be two Italians on the podium!   Bronze Medal: Massimilliano MANDIA (ITA)– M. I. ABD RAHIM (MAS) MANDIA has had a very good Championship except for his semi-final. He is the recent Field World Champion and proved one more time that he is a very promising shooter today in Kundu-Antalya (TUR). He only left the gold (the 9 or 10 zone) once in the entire match, while ABD RAHIM did not have his best performance. MANDIA won the bronze!   Recurve Junior WomenGold Medal: Pranitha VARDHINENI (IND) – Mikie ZUSHI (JPN) VARDHINENI started with a 4 and it was very difficult to refocus with that kind of start. ZUSHI was leading 50-45 after six arrows. Both archers shot better in the third end with 10-9-9 for VARDHINENI and 10-9-8 for ZUSHI. The wind gusts reappeared in the last end. VARDHINENI had another bad arrow. ZUSHI had a 6 but that was good enough to clinch a difficult match, 100-96. ZUSHI is the new World Champion!   Bronze Medal: Inna STEPANOVA (RUS) – LE Chieh-Ying (TPE) It seemed difficult for all the archers in their first six arrows, trying to figure out the wind and getting their sight set. STEPANOVA seemed actually very frustrated with her start and was trailing until the fifth arrow, 39-41. At this moment however, LE shot a 5 and it seemed the string caught her shirt. STEPANOVA capitalized on it and shot 10-9-10 to take the lead 76-72 after nine arrows. Although her last two shots were barely on time, the Russian won the bronze (as in 2006) 101-97!   Compound Junior Men Gold Medal: M. J. KROGSHEDE (DEN) – Demir ELMAAGACLI (TUR) This is the match the crowd was waiting for and the Turkish fans even had their face painted! The local favourite ELMAAGACLI appeared to be nervous shooting a 7 on his first arrow. KROGSHEDE had some trouble to settle down as well and neither archers shot a 10 in their first six arrows. The score was nevertheless 52-50 for the Dane and he increased his lead in the third end when he shot a perfect 30, despite ELMAAGACLI’s 29. KROGSHEDE led 82-79. He was very determined no to let anything go in the last end. He drilled one last 10 to close the match and win the gold with a score of 109-103!   Bronze Medal: Guy PHILLIPS (AUS) – Simon ROUSSEAU (CAN) What a match! PHILLIPS had the better hand for the most time and his coach was doing a good job keeping him calm after each end, as he looked very nervous. ROUSSEAU seemed to be struggling with the wind and tried to adjust with his sight on the third end. PHILLIPS was leading 86-82 at this time. However ROUSSEAU did not give up. He shot three 10s with his last arrows, while PHILLIPS lost it totally, shooting 9-7-9. ROUSSEAU turned around a desperate situation and won the bronze with the score of 112-111!   Compound Junior Women Gold Medal: Kendal NICELY (USA) – Samantha PRUITTE (USA) These two young ladies offered some great shooting in windy conditions. Nicely started strong and never let up. She achieved ends of 29, 29, 29 and 28 to earn the world title 113-108! She dominated the whole week. She was the no. 1 in qualifications and also won the team world title yesterday together with PRUITTE!   Bronze Medal: Camille BOUFFARD-DEMERS (CAN) – Sabine SAUTER (GER) The wind picked-up this afternoon and the gusts were really difficult to deal with. The bows were moving around from the win. SAUTER seemed quite tense despite a lot of talking from her coach. She started better and led 25-22. However BOUFFARD-DEMERS came back with a 10-9-10 in the second end and regained the lead 51-50. She increased it to 78-75 and finally clinched bronze 104-101.   Congratulations to all the young athletes and thank you Antalya-Kundu. See you in Odgen (USA) for the Youth World Championships 2010!   Denise Parker / Didier Miéville FITA Communication