World Archery Championships – Quotes of the Recurve Eliminations

Victor RUBAN (UKR)    Recurve Men   IM Dong-Hyun (KOR) How was your last match today? I have worried a bit about this quarterfinal. It seemed the most difficult match of the day. However, the weather conditions were perfect, I felt well, it was all good at the end.
Do you have any strategy? Playing these championships in Korea is comfortable because the food, water, and accommodation are more familiar than abroad. Moreover, a lot of people work for these championships and we have strong team management. As archer, we can fully focus on our game.
It seems to have a great atmosphere the men’s team. What is the key? We’ve had a friendly atmosphere as usual. Our team members are in similar ages, so we enjoyed cultural life together, and we have many things in common.
How do you think about atmosphere at stadium? This championship is my third one. I think Korean spectators understand well the sport of archery, maybe even better than before. Many foreigner players think positively about this, too. Actually, the Koreans fans respect us really well when we are shooting and then they cheer very loud for everyone, when we are scoring. It’s perfect!
OH Jin-Hyek (KOR) How was your game today? Today’s weather was so windy, sometime the arrows were going more on the right, sometimes more on the left. So it was hard to aim at one single point on the target. However, I think my form was strong and this is why I won the matches.
In the Mixed Team competition, how was the partnership with KWAK? To win in every competition is important of course, but I think the other official games left in the competition are a bit more important this time. We concentrated on the wind and we tried our best.
What is your strategy and preparation for the remaining part of the competition? Everybody has prepared well and so far so good… I think we will keep it the same way.    Romain GIROUILLE (FRA) I am happy with my championships. I showed what I can do. It was difficult environment to shine, since I had the two last Olympic Champions in my draw (GALIAZZO and RUBAN)! Before I played him GALIAZZO beat YAMAMOTO with a high score, so I was nervous. With the victory over him, I relaxed a bit. In the quarterfinal against RUBAN, I had to shoot really well in the second and third end to tie the match. Then in the last end, I do one little mistake and I started with an 8. I tried to come back but he concluded the match with a 10.     Viktor RUBAN (UKR) Today you qualified for the individual semifinals and you won the Mixed Team competition. How do you feel? I am of course very happy. My scores were very high, despite the fact that the competition was very tough. Everything turned out really well for me. I am especially happy to be the champion of the first ever Mixed Team event in a World Championships! This competition format is very interesting. I’m really happy that FITA invented it.
How are you going to celebrate your victory? For now, all I will do is take a good rest! It will be a hard competition tomorrow and I want to do well for my team.  
   Natalia SANCHEZ (COL)Recurve Women   KWAK Ye Ji (KOR) I was a bit challenged during my 1/16 and 1/8 but I could stay focus and try to lessen the mistakes in the next match. It went well in quarterfinals. I was an alternate at the Olympic Games but that was fine since the Korean athletes did very well there. Hopefully it my turn to win medals this year.
Natalia SANCHEZ (COL) Going into quarterfinals, how did you feel about shooting against the No. 2 seed YUN Ok-Hee from Korea? I had great expectations. I have prepared to go as far as I can and do the best possible job. And win no matter who my opponent would be.
You didn’t let anything go in the second end to clinch the victory. Did you do any special mental training? I didn’t do any special preparation but during my shooting, I tried to focus on what I had to do. I wasn’t paying attention to what my opponent was doing. I just focused on my target in order to not let anything distract me.
Carina Rosenvinge CHRISTIANSEN (DEN) In the quarterfinals, you were leading JOO Hyun-Jung (KOR) 56-55 after the first end. Then you scored only 50 to lose the match 105-111. What happened? I don’t think it was the pressure, I don’t know. Sometimes it just happens. I did my best but maybe at that moment my best was not enough.
Do you exchange small gifts with your competitors? Yes, at competitions we like to exchange little things from our respective countries. JOO gave me a nice silk souvenir box from Korea after our quarterfinal, and I’m going to give her a pin and a sticker from Denmark. Unfortunately, in my country we don’t have as nice souvenirs as you can find in Korea!
What about the upcoming World Cup Final in Copenhagen? I live in Denmark, so even if I weren’t selected to compete I was going to attend the competition. And I was selected to shoot in the Mixed Team event!
Victoriya KOVAL (UKR) – Mixed Team champion What do you think of the Mixed Team competition format? I like it a lot. I competed in a Mixed Team event for the first time in 2006 at the World Archery University Championships in Slovakia. Our team was 5th,which is not very good. Then Viktor and I shot together at the World Cup event in Croatia. At the 2009 Universiade in Belgrade, I paired with Dmytro HRACHOV. We won the silver, losing to Korea! So this time we took our revenge! I really enjoy this format of competition. It’s not the same as shooting in the individual competition, because in the Mixed Team I shoot with Viktor who is Olympic Champion! I was not nervous in the semifinals despite shooting against Korea. I was feeling very good thanks to our coach and the support from our whole team. I want to thank them for it.  
Berengere SCHUH (FRA)
There was a lot stress today. I was not consistent. I shot a couple of really high ends and a couple really low. Before the end of my 1/16 match, I saw that my opponent was ahead and knew it would be difficult to catch her. I did finish with 10 – 9 – 9, but too little, too late. I did not succeed to be at 100% like I did in Shanghai. It’s OK, we still have the team competition tomorrow and the World Cup Final in Copenhagen end of September.   FITA Communication