Porec winner ELLISON tops qualification in Antalya

  The first day of competition in Antalya is a busy one! The athletes shoot their qualifications in the morning and then the team eliminations in the second session of the day.  Recurve Men Individual The Recurve division was first on the field this morning and Brady ELLISON (USA) photo, winner at the Porec World Cup, showed again that he is in great form! He started with 339 points for his first 36 arrows (intermediate 7th place), but he finished with the best score in the second half, 341 points. His total of 680 points put him on top of the board! He achieved the highest 10 count on the field (38 10s out of a possible 72 maximum), which also brings two good news for ELLISON. He increased his lead on the Longines Prize for Precision for the most 10s shot during the World Cup season and he raised more money for the “Cure of Breast Cancer”. The more 10s he scores during the season, the more money he will raise.   Rahul BANERJEE (IND) was a close 2nd with 679 points (341 and 338). XING Yu (CHN) was 3rd with 676, tied score with Michelle FRANGILLI (ITA). The recent European bronze medallist Markiyan IVASHKO (UKR) scored 675, followed by other familiar names such as Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND), Takaharu FURUKAWA (JPN), Dmytro HRACHOV (UKK), CHENG Chu Sian (MAS), Marco GALIAZZO (ITA), Baljinima TSYREMPILOV (RUS), Simon TERRY (GBR) and Olympic champion Viktor RUBAN (UKR)!   Recurve Women Individual World Cup Final winner in 2008, Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) was back on top of today’s qualifications with a score of 664 (scoring 332 in both sessions). Ming CHENG (CHN) was in 2nd place with 660 points. Athletes who followed either had a lot of experience or the eagerness of the youth! The 21 y.o. Ksenia PEROVA (RUS) had 659, ahead of the experienced Jennifer NICHOLS (USA) with 658 and world bronze medallist Natalia SANCHEZ (COL) with 655. ZHU Shanshan (CHN) and Inna STEPANOVA (RUS), both 20 y.o., scored 654 points. GUO Faping (CHN), 22 y.o., had 653. The four times Olympian Khatuna LORIG (USA) had 652 followed by Aida ROMAN (MEX), 22 y.o., Asako MATSUNAGA (JPN), 20 y.o., Mikie KANIE (JPN), 22 y.o. and Deepika KUMARI (IND), our youngest competitor at 15 y.o.!   MOSPINEK and GUO, with 29 and 27 arrows in the 10 ring, respectively, moved up some places in the Longines Prize for Precision. This can still change with the individual matches to follow.   Compound Men Individual The new Compound 50m Round was exceptionally shot in Antalya with a target face which had 6-10 scoring zones instead of the planned 5-10 scoring zones. In any case, compound athletes usually do not use the 5 or 6 point scoring zones, they rather stay in the 10. Four times World Cup event winner, Sergio PAGNI, did just that in the first half and took the lead with an impressive 354 points. Although his second half was not as good (348 points, ranked 13th), he managed to stay 1st overall with 702 points. Shaun TEASDALE (NZL) was 2nd, combining 348 and 353 for a total of 701. Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN) also hit the 700 mark to take 3rd place. He was followed by two relatively new archers at this level of competition, Seppie CILLIERS (RSA) and Slavko TURCIS (SLO). On the contrary, the next archers in the ranking list were impressive in terms of experience. Antalya’s winner last year, Dominique GENET (FRA), Jorge JIMENEZ (ESA), Martin DAMSBO (DEN), Morten BOE (NOR), Morgan LUNDIN (SWE) and Patrizio HOFER (SUI). Finally, the real surprise was the absence of Americans until the 14th place, held by Duane PRICE, Braden GELLENTHIEN ranking 22nd. This by no means rules them out as threats in the elimination matches.  Compound Women Individual We had announced an American-Russian dual. However athletes from Mexico and Iran were also in the mix. Erika ANSCHUTZ (USA) was 1st with 689 points (347 and 342). Linda OCHOA (MEX) had 683 (344 and 339), while Jamie VAN NATTA (USA) achieved 681 (344 and 337). They were followed by two Russians: the new European Champion Viktoria BALZHANOVA with 679 and Anna ARTEMOVA with 678. S. V. HALIMIANAVVAL (IRI) was 6th, A. M. CRISANTO (MEX) was 7th, Parsamher MAHTAB (IRI) 8th and World Champion Albina LOGINOVA (RUS) photo, 9th. The recent Porec World Cup winner Ashley WALLACE (CAN) took the 10th place.   Compound Men Team The most consistent team was actually Australia. A combination of COGHLAN-PHILLIPS-TIMMS scored 2082 points. The Netherlands (ELZINGA-POLMAN-REMIE) took the 2nd place with 2076 and South Africa (BENADE-CILLIERS-CROWTHER) was 3rd with 2075. USA were 4th and New Zealand 5th, making the top of the rankings very tight!   Compound Women Team USA had the upper hand of Russia on this occasion, the team of ANSCHUTZ-VAN NATTA-WATSON scored 2034, while ARTEMOVA-BALZHANOVA-LOGINOVA had 2030. Team Mexico (CRISANTO-DE LA CONCHA-OCHOA) was not far behind with 2024. Iran also broke the 2000 barrier with 2006, while Great Britain just missed out with 1999.   Recurve Men Team India (CHAMPIA, BANERJEE, TALUKDAR) and Ukraine (HRACHOV, IVASHKO, RUBAN) dominated the field in the morning session and at the end the Indian team prevailed with 2018 against 2016 points. China was 3rd with 2006, ahead of Japan and Italy.   Recurve Women Team China was the most consistent women’s team with three archers in the top 8! They scored an aggregated 1967 points. Russia was 2nd with 1954, and India was further behind with 1939. Japan and the USA completed the top 5.   Recurve Mixed Team Taking in account the results from the top man and woman from each country, the USA topped the ranking with 1338 points including the pair ELLISON-NICHOLS. China (CHENG-XING) was 2nd with 1336. India was tied with Russia at 1329 each, and Japan tied with Poland at 1325.   Compound Mixed Team Thanks to ANSCHUTZ’s strong performance, Team USA (with the result of PRICE from the men’s competition) were first in the Compound Mixed Team scoring 1384 points. The combination of TRILLUS-WALLACE, from Canada, took 2nd place with 1372. SEGIN-BALZHANOVA earned 3rd place for Russia with 1369.   Didier MIEVILLE World Archery Communication