World Cup action returns in Porec

Jake KAMINSKI (USA)    Recurve Men Individual A new season always brings new faces. On the recurve men’s side, there were the Chinese JING Xiangqing and XING Yu, the American Jake KAMINSKI and the Turkish Sermet CINAR. Nevertheless, the experienced Mangal Singh CHAMPIA (IND) led halfway through qualifications with 344 points after 36 arrows. His teammate RAI Tarundeep was three points behind. Michele FRANGILLI (ITA) made a nice return to the World Cup with 339, while his teammate and World Cup Final winner of last year, Marco GALIAZZO, achieved 337.   At the end, experience prevailed when CHAMPIA and FRANGILLI finished the qualifications on top with 686 points. The Indian took the 1st place thanks to a greater amount of 10s (44), which will also help him for the LONGINES Precision Prize. XING was 3rd with 677, one point ahead of GALIAZZO. L. E. VELEZ SANCHEZ (MEX) finished 5th with 672, one more than RAI and Brady ELLISON (USA). The American hit the 10 a total of 29 times. For any 10 that he scores, he secures donations for the cure of breast cancer (see our interview soon). At 64th place, Nader M. GHADAM (IRI) just made the cut with 635 points, just one more than four pursuers who were eliminated.   Recurve Women Individual Rimil BURUILY (IND) and Amy OLIVER (GBR) were two of the discoveries of the morning session. The Indian led the pack after 36 arrows with 329 points, while the Brit was 3rd with 324, tied with the World Cup Final winner in 2008, Justyna MOSPINEK (POL). The Polish star turned out to be more consistent at the end, shooting another 324 points in the second half. She took 1st place with 648, one more than Elena KUZNETSOVA (BLR). Laishram Bombayla DEVI (IND) was 3rd with 644 followed by the two Chinese, CHENG Ming and GUO Faping. BURUILY had a terrible second half with only 311 points (35th place for this half), which put her at the 9th final rank with 640. OLIVER also fell to 11th place with 633. The 64th place was reached by Veronique MARRIE D’UNIENVILLE from Mauritius! A nice performance for this athlete, who kept improving after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.   Compound Men Individual In the compound categories, the competition is always very tight among the top 10, or more, archers. Today, top shooters like Sergio PAGNI (ITA), World Cup Final winner in 2009, Reo WILDE (USA), the current world champion and Peter ELZINGA (NED), the FITA Round world record holder, were on top, or close to it, in many occasions. At the end, ELZINGA and WILDE finished tied at 707 points but the Dutch took the first place thanks to a greater amount of 10s. Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) had 706 and PAGNI, 702. Two other Americans, Dave COUSINS and Rodger WILLET Jr, finished with 701. Shaun TEASDALE (NZL) was the last one with 700 points or more. Jose Ignacio CATALAN (ESP) and Vladimir BARTOL (CRO) were the last two qualifiers with 677 points.      Anna ARTEMOVA (RUS)Compound Women Individual The world champion Albina LOGINOVA (RUS) was on top of the ranking most part of the afternoon and she just held it until the end. She scored 689 points, one more than Jamie VAN NATTA (USA). Another American, Erika Anschutz, was third with 682, closely followed by Nicky HUNT (GBR), the 2007 world champion Eugenia SALVI (ITA) and the newcomer Anna ARTEMOVA (RUS). The local hero Ivana BUDEN (CRO) was 7th with 678 points. Another Croatian, Lana Koller FUNDELIC took the last qualifying spot with 627 points.   Recurve Men Team After 36 arrows, India (CHAMPIA, RAI, TALUKDAR) reached 1010 points and had a 12-point lead over the USA (ELLISON, KAMINSKI, WUNDERLE). Mexico (MARIN, SERRANO, VELEZ SANCHEZ) was 3rd with 995 points. India kept the 1st place with a total of 2017 points. Italy (DI BUO, FRANGILLI, GALIAZZO) emerged on 2nd place with 2011 and set a new European Record! They were ahead of the USA, 1998, and Mexico, 1996. The cut was just made by Australia (GRAY, NARAY, TYACK), 16th with 1937.
Recurve Women Team The surprising Belarus (HUL, KUSNETSOVA, TIMOFEYEVA) led this category after 36 arrows with 960 points and a 10-point margin over Great Britain (BURGESS, FOLKARD, OLIVER). China (CHENG, GUO, ZHU) had 946. Belarus hold a 4-point gap over China at the end, 1904 to 1900 points. Poland (LIPIARSKA, MARSZALKOWSKA, MOSPINEK) reached 3rd place with 1894, while Great Britain fell at 4th place with 1883. The last qualifying spot was taken by Malaysia (ABD. HALIM, SUBRAMANIAM, TAIP) with 1753. Compound Men Team The USA had in competition the world champion’s team: WILDE, GELLENTHIEN and COUSINS. They are actually all multiple team world champion and they proved again today! With a combined score of 2114, they broke the world record by 11 points! The fourth American, WILLET Jr, finished 6th individually with the same score as COUSINS. The previous world record was held by the French team and was done at the World Cup Stage in Porec in 2008. Porec is truly a field of records! Netherlands (ELZINGA, POLMAN, VAN ZUTPHEN) was 2nd with 2084 and Australia (COGHLAN, FREEMAN, VERSTEGEN) 3rd with 2078. Brazil (CONTRUCCI, DOS SANTOS, RORIZ) finished 16th with 2037. USA Compound Men Team    Compound Women Team As often, it was a fight between the USA (ANSCHUTZ, VAN NATTA, WATSON) and the world champion Russia (ARTEMOVA, BALZHANOVA, LOGINOVA). This time the Americans prevailed with a cumulative score of 2036 to 2033. Mexico (CRISANTO, DE LA CONCHA, OCHOA) finished 3rd with 2018 points. New Zealand (CROSKERY, MCGREGOR, MITCHELL) finished 16th with 1942 points   Recurve Mixed Team Taking in account the results from the top man and woman from each country, India led comfortably after 36 arrows with 673 points, ahead of China and the USA. At the end, India and China kept the two top places with respectively with 1330 and 1320 points. Italy was 3rd with 1313, just one point ahead of Poland and the USA. Belgium earned 16th place with 1261.   Compound Mixed Team To no surprise, the USA were first in the Compound Mixed Team with 1395 points, ahead of Italy, 1382, and the Netherlands, 1378. Australia earned the last qualifying spot with 1356.   All the qualified archers will have the privilege to shoot individual matches with the Set System tomorrow! The mixed teams will also shoot tomorrow; while the teams will compete on Friday. Finals are on Saturday.   Didier MIEVILLE
World Archery Communication