GALIAZZO reaches the final for his birthday!

 Recurve Men In the first round (1/32 eliminations), the first upset saw the Olympic team medallist LI Wenquan (CHN) being eliminated by the No. 52 seed Piotr NOWAK (POL) after a shoot-off (tied at 107 points), as the Polish shot a 10 against a 9 for the Chinese. The second interesting match was the one between Thomas AUBERT (FRA) and Larry GODFREY (GBR) that was tied after 12 arrows at 109 points each. The Briton went on with an X10, while the French could only manage a 9. Seeded No. 15, Simon TERRY (GBR) faced another big upset as the Finnish Antti MANSUKOSKI, No. 50, pushed him out the brackets with a final score of 112-109.

In the 1/16 elimination round, a tied match between Indian teammates VISWASH and Mangal Singh CHAMPIA led to two shoot-offs as they both scored 9 in the first one, but VISWASH was slightly stronger in the second one as he shot a liner 10 against CHAMPIA’s 9. Another Indian, Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) was in trouble in the first end, as he trailed by one point against Chinese XUE Hai-Feng (59-58). XUE could not keep pace and TALUKDAR took over the lead to finally win the match 112-111.   The top seeded competitor, Brady ELLISON (USA) left on top photo, continued on his way to the finals as he beat Ukrainian Andrey ABRAMOV 108-105. Rahul BANERJEE (IND) faced Baljinima TSYREMPILOV (RUS) in a very tight match as the half-way mark was 54-55 for the Russian. A second end of 58 points for TSYREMPILOV did not give the Indian a chance to recover and finally gave victory to the Russian with 113-110. TALUKDAR (IND) remained on the race as he won his match against the Chinese XING Yu 113-111 with a great first end scoring 59 points.   The quarterfinals gave easy victories to ELLISON (111-109) against Mikalai MARUSAU (BLR), as well as to Marco GALIAZZO (ITA) right on top photo versus CHENG Chu Sian (MAS) with 112-109. The match between Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA) and VISWASH (IND) was tight, as the French recovered end after end (24-26, 52-51, 79-79) to finally tie at 104 points. The shoot-off allowed the Frenchman to continue as he scored a 9, while the Indian shot 8 just out of the 9 ring. The last quarterfinal match was between TALUKDAR (IND) and TSYREMPILOV (RUS). The Indian took the lead as of the first end and did not allow the Russian to get closer for a final score 112-110 in his favour.   The first semifinal was between ELLISON and GALIAZZO. The Italian led by one point after the first two ends (30-28 and 58-57). His opponent from the USA could not recover and trailed by three points after the third end (84-87). Although ELLISON shot a better end than his opponent (27-26), it was not enough. GALIAZZO clinched the match on the final score of 113-111.

The second semifinal featured VALLADONT versus TALUKDAR. The Indian started ahead in the first end with 28-27 and kept on increasing the lead to finally go on to the gold medal match with a final score of 112-101. He will face 2004 Olympic champion GALIAZZO, while VALLADONT will shoot against ELLISON for bronze.  Recurve Women In the 1/32 elimination matches, two top seeded archers went out of the board, as the No. 8 seed ZHU Jiani (CHN) was defeated by No. 57 Kristin BRAUN (USA) on the score of 102-101. The other upset was for the No. 13 seed Inna STEPANOVA (RUS) who lost her match against Amira MOHAMED NUR (MAS) 107-97. All other higher ranked competitors won their respective matches.

In the second round, another two top-5 archers were kicked out, as No. 3 Victoriya KOVAL (UKR) lost her match against Ekaterina KHARKHANOVA (RUS) with a final score of 108-101. The second upset was for the 2008 World Cup winner and No. 1 seed Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) who was defeated by the No. 32 Susanne POSSNER (GER) in the shoot-off with a 10 versus 9 for MOSPINEK. Another great match saw Sophie DODEMENT (FRA) take out the 2007 World Cup winner and bronze medallist in Santo Domingo, Dola BANERJEE (IND), as they went on a three-arrow shoot-off after the score was tied at 108 each. The third arrow (closest to the centre) gave victory to the Frenchwoman as she shot a perfect X10. BANERJEE’s 6 was helpless.    In 1/8 eliminations the German POSSNER continued on the same line beating the Chinese Yeqing CHEN 110-102. One Chinese was left, ZHAO Ling, who managed to beat Hanna MARUSAVA (BLR) 109-104. A very close match between DODEMENT (FRA) and Chekrovolu SWURO (IND) gave the advantage to the Frenchwoman with a final score of 105-104. And finally, Berengere SCHUH (FRA) took the lead over world champion and stage 1 winner Natalia VALEEVA (ITA), as the Italian started with a low 48-point end (51 for the SCHUH). SCHUH continued to shoot the same and eventually won the match on the final score of 103-99.   The quarterfinals featured the upset of No. 1 seed and ZHANG Yulu (CHN). POSSNER just kept on shooting great and beat the Chinese with 108-105. ZHAO (CHN) easily took over Yulia LOBZHENIDZE (UKR) with a final score of 105-99. A tight match between Katsiaryna TIMOFEYEVA (RUS) and Pia Carmen LIONETTI (ITA) photo went to a shoot-off and offered the semifinal match to the Italian with a 9 (8 for the Russian). The last quarterfinal match was 100% French as DODEMONT and SCHUH faced each other. SCHUH first took the lead at 29-28 and it was then DODEMONT’s turn at 54-53 and at 81-79. However, but DODEMONT could not stand the pressure and let it go at the end. SCHUH could come back to win the match 108-107.   Quite easy semifinals for the winners, as no real fight were on. ZHAO was ahead to start and kept her advantage over POSSNER all along (27-26, 56-50, 85-73 and 109-100). The second match between LIONETTI and SCHUH was about the same with the Italian taking the lead and not letting it go (28-24, 56-52, 84-79 and 107-104). ZHAO will face LIONETTI for gold, as POSSNER will shoot against SCHUH for bronze.   Chantal STEINER FITA Communication