6 September 2009 - Ukraine and Russia win the Mixed Team exhibition

Ukraine and Russia win the Mixed Team exhibition Ulsan (KOR) – 6 September 2009  
The mixed team competition launched this year at the World Cup was shot for the first time at a world championship as a very exciting exhibition only. Ukraine won in recurve and Russia in compound with a perfect 160 score!
 
The qualification scores of the best two archers of each country having at least one competitor per gender gave the mixed team ranking. The 8 best nations qualified for the quarterfinals. A mixed team match is made up of 16 arrows, each team shooting four ends of four arrows. Moreover there is music when the archers are shooting and a lot of cheering for every team!
 
Recurve Mixed Team
In the recurve division, the top-seeded individual man and woman, OH Jin-Hyek and KWAK Ye-Ji, who qualified earlier today for the individual semifinals, took care of Canada in the mixed team quarterfinals. They almost did not miss the gold with 9-9-10-9, 9-9-10-9, 9-10-8-9 and 9-10-8-9 to win 146-134. Chinese Taipei, KUO Cheng-Wei and LIN Hsiao-Ying, did even better to beat Mexico 150-145 (10-10-8-7, X10-10-X10-9, 10-X10-10-9 and 9-10-X10-8). In the other matches, China beat France 146-140 and Ukraine defeated the USA 150-143. Korea and Ukraine meet in a high-level semifinal. Korea started with 10-9-10-10 and X10-10-10-9 to lead 78-75. Then Ukraine shot 8-10-10-10 to come back to 113-114 and finished with 9-9-9-10 to defeat the home favourite Koreans, 150-148. China defeated Chinese Taipei 149-145. The Ukrainian team of Victorya KOVAL and Olympic Champion Viktor RUBAN met the Chinese team of XUE Hai-Feng and ZHAO Ling in the final. The Ukrainians had almost the perfect start with 9-10-X10-X10. They led 39-35 and did not let go: 77-74, 114-112 and 149-147 at the end! For bronze, Korea barely defeated Chinese Taipei 148-147.
 
Compound Mixed Team
In compound, the German pairing of Paul TITSCHER and Melanie MIKALA was at the top of the qualifications with 2766 points. They shot against the Canadians (Kevin TATARYN and Ashley WALLACE) in the first round and were upset 140-142! For Denmark, Martin DAMSBO and Camilla SOEMOD shot against Mexico, Jaime HAFID and Linda OCHOA. The match was tight! Both teams were tied at 38 then Denmark took a small lead 77-76 and 114-112, but blew it in the last end and Mexico tied them at 150. The four archers had to shoot one arrow in the shoot-off. Denmark shot 9-10, while Mexico had only 9-9. In the other quarterfinals, Italy defeated the USA 152-151 and Russia beat France 152-150. In the semi-final, Denmark did not miss the gold with 10-9-10-9, 9-10-10-10, 10-9-9-9, 9-9-10-10. Canada had a pair of 8s that proved to be the difference and they conceded defeat 151-152. Russia beat the USA 154-151. The Russian pair of Albina LOGINOVA and Vladimir FEDOSOV was perfect in the final against Denmark! Sixteen 10s, the first perfect score in the mixed team event and an amazing performance for this exhibition. They beat Denmark 160-156. For bronze, Canada beat Italy, 156-154.
Didier MIEVILLE FITA Communication