Quotes from the individual eliminations

  Recurve Men   Brady ELLISON (USA) The Set System probably makes my life y bit easier. I am not as nervous as with the regular matches last year. Through the season so far I have become more confident and I am having quite some fun. In the match against WILLS I did struggled a bit, but I figured some things out and it went fine in the last set. It is always important to shoot well in the last set. In this case against WILLS, I am glad I drew the last set 57-57, which was enough to keep a decisive advantage in the match. I did not have to push myself to a shoot-off, which is always difficult.  Michele FRANGILLI (ITA) I took my bow and my arrow from 2004 (!) and it is going much better than the last two years. I just took new limbs. I am just having fun shooting, figuring out the wind and enjoying the competitions. As I long as I shoot well for myself I am happy. Today, I was a bit lucky with my two shoot-offs. My two opponent Ukrainians opponents shot the same score as I did, but I was just a bit closer to the centre.   Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) The Set System is OK. On one hand, if you score a perfect 60, this doesn’t give you much of an advantage any more. On the other hand, if you lose the first set, you always think that you can come back. We have been shooting the Set System in India since January and we played a lot of matches for our national trials. So we are really getting used to it. We have had two trials so far and we just came down from 16 to 12 archers in the team. We still have three trials to go. In the next one, the coaches will cut to six archers. Then they will select the three archers for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and one more (so four) will be able to go to the Asian Games.   Recurve Women   Victoriya KOVAL (UKR) Everything is great here in Turkey this year, the competition, the field and especially the accommodation. Of course this atmosphere is a big help to the performance. I have always performed well in Turkey, at last year’s World Cup I was 7th, the previous year 2nd, at the 2005 Universiades in Izmir I was 3rd individually and 2nd with the team, and I was 3rd with my team at the 2007 Indoor World Championships that also took place in Izmir. In my four times in Turkey I won four medals! This time the Set System makes the game more unpredictable, it is harder now because you must stay focused and shoot every arrow very well. But it’s more interesting, because everyone has a chance to win.   Dola BANERJEE (IND) I like the Set System, because it is more interesting for spectators. Today my shooting went well; all of my scores were very good.   Compound Men Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) During qualifications I seemed to be on the wrong side of the wind. Apart from that I have a friend who saw a picture of me shooting on Facebook and spotted a form flaw. He informed me about it and I spent the last week trying to fix it. That really allowed me to feel more confident and I think it showed today.   I think the Hit/Miss target is more frustrating than a regular target because a bad 9 costs you the same as a 7 or a 6, but as long as you don’t miss they can’t beat you (smiling).   Vladas SIGAUSKAS (LTU) I liked shooting under the new rules in qualifications. The main problem is the highest of the three target faces on the butt. It is more difficult for short archers to shoot well in it (the tall SIGAUSKAS doesn’t have this problem). This high target makes the game not equal. Otherwise it makes the game very interesting. In Porec the rules were a little bit different – we shot under the Set System but in a regular target, not in a Hit/Miss target – and I placed only 9th. Today it’s the opposite. This morning the coach from Slovenia came to me and asked if I would win. I said I would, and it helped my motivation, because I had promised him to win, like a kind of guaranty. Many thanks to him (smiling).   Martin DAMSBO (DEN) Things are going well for me this season. It’s not a question of preparation, because I’ve never practiced shooting in the Hit/Miss target before. We still haven’t received them and it was my first time shooting in it today. I still need to adapt to it.   I think this format is weird. I’m not sure yet if I like it. I definitely don’t like it for the team competition, because we shoot only one arrow per archer, then we go get it at the target, and so on. There is too much walking and too little shooting. Maybe if they change it to two arrows it would be better. What’s more, when the conditions are windy as is the case here, it is hard to shoot on this small target. Right now I’m not very positive about it; we will see how it goes in the next tournaments.   Compound Women   Nicky HUNT (GBR) Personally, I rather like the Compound Round! It is new, it is different, and it is rather fun to experiment all these new rules. I like the fact the highest ranked shooter from the qualifications go through in case of a tie after the third shoot-off. On one hand, it makes these 72 arrows of qualifications worth something and on the other hand, the opponent had enough chance to beat you if it goes all the way to the third shoot-off.   I think the hit zone has a good size. Today it gave a good percentage between hits and misses. If it would have been only hits, or only misses, it would not be interesting. I don’t think a tail wind like today was much of a factor. Of course, if there is more wind, it may become very difficult to hit the yellow.   I am afraid the three zones (blue, red, yellow) may be confusing for spectators, since there are only two possibilities: either a hit (in the yellow) or a miss. For us, it seems these three zones make the yellow a bit bigger than it really is.   Jamie VAN NATTA (USA) With these target faces and this distance, it is difficult to hold the aiming point into the hit zone. With a gentle wind like today, it is very easy to go outside the zone. This brings an element of luck in the shoot that I don’t like. It is not fun to miss so much, especially when you made a strong technical shot. In a sense, you just missed the zone because the target face is so small at this distance.   Nichola SIMPSON (GBR) With this wind, it is too much of luck if you hit or your miss. I don’t like the rule of the highest ranked archer going through if there is a tie after the third shoot-off. Let’s make the shoot-off with one arrow, closest to centre.   Andrea GALES (GBR) Why are there three faces as of the quarterfinals? It makes us move and re-adapt our position to each face. I believe we could shoot our three arrows on the same face, like we also do at 30 metres.   World Archery Communication