Team Eliminations

  Recurve Men In the first round (1/8 eliminations), only two matches were competed, as the top 6 teams had byes. The match between Venezuela (no. 9), with AMUNDARAY, LEONI and PALACIO, and Turkey (no. 8), with AGDERE, ERGIN and KARACAM, was quite exciting. After six arrows, the Turks led by three points (53-50), but their opponents from Venezuela came back and overtook them in the second end, taking the lead 104-100 at the half-way mark. Due to a 7 in the third end, Venezuela trailed again after 18 arrows, 154-155. The South Americans again shot two 7s in the last end which put an end to their hopes to recover. The score was finally 208-199 in favour of Turkey. In the second 1/8 match, Poland (no. 7) easily defeated the local team of Dominican Republic (no. 10).   The tightest quarterfinal match was between Mexico (no. 3) and Cuba (no. 6). Representing Mexico, LASTRA, SERRANO and VELEZ SANCHEZ trailed by two points after six arrows (51-53). However, they profited from a 6 by their opponents, PUENTE, QUINTANA and STEVENS in the second end to tie the match at 105-105. The Cubans shot another 6 in the third end, giving Mexico a 1-point advantage (158-157) with only six arrows left. However, with two 8s in the last end, the Mexicans saw their opponents come back and tie again at 211-211. There was a tie again after the first 3-arrow shoot-off, Mexico scoring 9-9-7 and Cuba 9-8-8. With 8-10-9 vs 7-10-8 for Cuba, the team from Mexico finally clinched victory.   In the other quarterfinals, the top seeded team from India easily defeated the no. 8 team Turkey, 222-203. Team USA (no. 5) beat Italy (no. 4) with a score of 219-214. Finally, the no. 7 seeded team Poland conceded defeated against no. 2 Great Britain by 203-225.   In the first semi-final between the no. 1 and no. 5 seeds, team USA with ELLISON, JOHNSON and WUKIE trailed by one point after six arrows (54-55), despite shooting a 7. Their contenders from India, BANERJEE, CHAMPIA and TALUKDAR photo, then doubled their lead, 108-106, at the half-way mark. However, with three 10s in the third end, the Americans managed to come back and tie at 108-108 but the Indians focused their efforts in the last end, shooting four 10s and clinching victory 219-215.   The second semi-final featured the no. 2 seeded team Great Britain against the no. 3 Mexico and was as tight as expected. The South Americans LASTRA, SERRANO and VELEZ SANCHEZ led by three points after six arrows at 58-55 but the British team of GODFREY, TERRY and WILLS took the lead back from them 113-111 at the half-way mark. The Mexicans recovered one point in the penultimate end and only trailed 165-166. However, they scored a 7 in the last series of six arrows, and this put them on the road to ruin, 217-219.   On Sunday at the Plaza de Espana in downtown Santo Domingo, India will face Great Britain for the gold medal and USA will shoot against Mexico for bronze.   Recurve Women There was only one 1/8 elimination match in the recurve women’s category. The team of Great Britain (no. 8) faced no opposition from the local team, the Dominican Republic. BURGESS, OLIVER and WILLIAMSON comfortably qualified for the next round, beating PORTES, SOLANO and TEJADA on the score of 208-148.   In the quarterfinal, the no. 8 team Great Britain upset the top seeded Indians BANERJEE, DEVI and KUMARI. The British ladies led 53-49 after the first end and then 103-100 at the half-way mark. However, with a 5 in the third series of six arrows, they offered their opponents a chance to come back and trailed by one point with only the last end to go (153-154) but finally, BURGESS, OLIVER and WILLIAMSON proved more consistent at the end with two 10s, three 9s and an 8 and clinched victory by one point, 208-207.   The other quarterfinal matches saw the other three of the top 4 teams qualify for the semi-finals. Poland (no. 4) beat Mexico (no. 5) with difficulty, 205-203. Colombia (no. 3) over Turkey (no. 6), 201-180 and Italy (no. 2) prevailed over the USA (no. 7), 218-192.   The British team might have suffered from their efforts in the quarterfinal against the top seed India. Facing Poland in the semi-final, team GBR led 158-155 with only six arrows to shoot but they totally missed their last end, shooting a 7, a 6 and a 1! LIPIARSKA, MOSPINEK and MYSZOR photo easily clinched the match 211-197 and will shoot for gold on Sunday.   The second semi-final between Italy (no. 2) and Colombia (no. 3) was closer, as expected, but TOMASI, TONETTA and VALEEVA played a dangerous game ... enjoying a comfortable lead 53-48 after six arrows and 110-103 after twelve, the Italians let their opponents come back and lead 153-151 with only one end to go. At the end, their superior experience paid off and they eventually beat the Colombians 210-207 to qualify for the gold medal match. The team of Colombia will face Great Britain for bronze.   Compound Men Three matches were scheduled in the compound men’s 1/8 elimination round. Venezuela (no. 7) lost it when one of the shooters had his finger slip on the clicker and his arrow hit the ground in front of him, scoring 0 (!) GONZALEZ, ROJAS and TORRES led the score at that time, but this miss put them at a disadvantage 105-112 at the half-way mark. They could never recover from this unfortunate mishap and lost to Colombia (no. 10) by 213-221. In the other 1/8 matches, Puerto Rico (no. 9) just defeated the Dominican Republic (no. 8) 220-219, and Ukraine faced no problem to beat Trinidad & Tobago (no. 11) 221-205.   The top seeded team USA, with GELLENTHIEN, L. WILDE and R. WILDE photo, was given a hard time by the no. 9 Puerto Rico, with CASTRO, PIZARRO and VELEZ, in quarterfinal. After six arrows, the Puerto Ricans led by two points, 55-53. However, the Americans regained the lead after two ends (112-110) and kept it after three ends (169-167). The South Americans could still believe in their lucky star at that time, but with two 8s and a 7 in the last end, they lost it all by 217-224.   The other quarterfinal matches were won by Mexico (no. 5) 218-214 over India (no. 4), El Salvador (no. 3) 226-214 over Ukraine (no. 6), and Canada (no. 2) 231-217 over Colombia (no. 10).   The semi-final match between the no 2 and 3 seeded teams, Canada and El Salvador, was tied at 57 points each after six arrows. Led by the 2007 world champion and 2008 World Cup winner, TRILLUS, the Canadian team then scored five 10s and one 9 to take a 3-point lead at the half-way mark (116-113). With the 2007 World Cup winner in their team, JIMENEZ, the Salvadorans then came back to only two points 170-172 before the last end. However, they could not recover totally and at the end lost 225-228 to Canada.   The second semi-final was a cakewalk for team USA, the no. 1 seed. Facing Mexico (no. 5), GELLENTHIEN and the WILDE brothers held an early lead (58-56) after the first end that they kept increasing all the way through the match: 115-110 after twelve arrows, 172-165 after 18 and 228-219 after 24. In the gold medal match on Sunday, the Americans will face Canada, whereas Mexico will fight for bronze versus El Salvador.   Compound Women As only seven teams entered the compound women’s team competition, this category started directly in the quarterfinal. There were three matches contested in the first round where all of the top seeded teams won quite easily. Venezuela (no. 2) defeated the local team, Dominican Republic, 214-185. At the same time, Mexico (no. 3) beat Puerto Rico (no. 6) with a score of 220-210. The match between the no. 4 and no. 5 seeds, India and Colombia, was closer, but the Asians finally clinched victory 207-200.   The two semi-finals in this category were quite close, as the top 4 seeded teams were present at this stage of the competition. The no. 1 seeded Americans, LORENTI, VAN NATTA and WATSON, only led by one point after the first (57-56) and second (113-112) ends against India, made up of CHANU, HANSDAH and SOY. They then doubled their advantage at 169-167 and increased it up to five points at the end of the 24-arrow match, 225-220.   The no. 2 and 3 teams, Venezuela, with BOSCH, GUEDEZ and MONTES, and Mexico, with GONZALEZ, A. OCHOA and L. OCHOA photo, were only separated by one point after the first end, 54-53 in favour of the Venezuelans. At the half-way mark, the lead then changed to Mexico at 106-105. Shooting a 7 in the third end, the Venezuelan team then offered a comfortable 5-point advantage to their opponents, 161-156 for Mexico with only six arrows to shoot. The game was over and GONZALEZ and teammates finally clinched victory by 218-212. They will challenge the favourite Americans in the gold medal match on Sunday, after Venezuela and India will have played for bronze.   Ludivine MAITRE WICKI FITA Communication