Quotes from the team finals

 
Recurve Men   Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) This is our fourth team victory at a World Cup: Antalya in 2008, Santo Domingo and Porec in 2009 and Antalya again! For our match the wind calmed down and it was constant so it was not so difficult. We spent pretty much the whole year together with Rahul (BANERJEE) and Mangal Singh (CHAMPIA). We live in the same training centre. It is just great friends and a good team!  Recurve Women   ZHU Shanshan (CHN) This is only my second time at a World Cup, the first one was in Porec last month. This is a completely new team but it can still change for the Asian Games. Today it was very windy near the beach and we needed to keep calm and not rush our shots. For me it was the same kind of experience as on the Porec final field. I think the fans were a bit louder in Antalya but when you focus on yourself you don’t hear them. Overall I liked it!   Jennifer NICHOLS (USA) This is the first time that the US women recurve team has participated in a final match at the World Cup. It has been a real thrill to win this bronze medal! We have made great progress in the last few months and it was such an honour to represent the USA on this stage in Antalya. Such finals and set-up definitely brings more excitement to the game!   I have kept training with my personal coach Alexander Kirillov and I have become more confident recently I have also learned to enjoy my sport and life a bit more than in the past. I am not taking everything such seriously anymore and that has helped my shooting. I am glad that the whole American team is going to every World Cup this year. We are together more often and this has also a positive effect.   Compound Men   Seppie CILLIERS (RSA) The distance of 50 metres is a bit our speciality in South Africa, so we knew we had a chance. This our second World Cup only and it is our second medal. This time it’s the the gold, after we had won the bronze in Shanghai last year! Everybody worked hard since then and it paid off. Of course, the USA is a dominant force in compound, but we believed in ourselves. Actually, we also sent a prayer before the match—and it was answered! It is an honour to represent our country and now it is a bit hard to realize that we have won!   Archery South Africa, under the leadership of Dr Selwyn MOSKOVITZ and Barbara MANNING, has come a long way. They have spent a lot of the time and they have made sure we have some fundings, especially from the lottery at home. They have put the proper coaching program in place. The level in South Africa has picked up and I believe they are many more archers capable of performing at the World Cup. I would like to thank every one, really every one, for their support!   Chris WHITE (GBR) The Hit/Miss compound team event is difficult because each individual only shoots one arrow per set. Then you have to wait two or three minutes to shoot your next arrow and the wind may change. So it is difficult to adjust, especially if you made a bad shot or if you were caught by the wind. On the other hand, I must say that short sets, shorts matches must be better for spectators, specially compared to the traditional team matches. I hope for the future we find a good balance between shooting more arrows and keeping it intense for the fans.   For the individual matches, you do shoot three arrows per set yourself, so it is a bit easier. It is also more forgiven because a bad shot is just a miss. You don’t have a bad a miss or a good miss, you only lost one point. That can play sometimes in your favour and sometimes not. On the other hand, with windy conditions the Compound Round makes it really tricky to hit consistently. Sometimes you are really unlucky to get out of the hit zone.  Compound Women   Albina LOGINOVA (RUS) A lot of fans! A lot of hits and a victory! Today is a good day, better than yesterday. We have had different people in the team over the last five years, but Russia keeps winning.  Now we have some pretty good young archers such as Viktoryia (BALZHANOVA). She has been shooting very well in Russia and has collected a lot of top three finishes. She is now more solid, stronger and she is better in the wind. It was not a surprise to me to see her winning the European Championships last month!   Linda OCHOA (MEX) The Compound Round is very different. I believe it is easy to understand for the spectators: it is either a hit or a miss! For us women archers, the hit zone seems a bit too small. It is also way different to shoot at 50 metres rather than at 70 metres. The good news for me is that I prefer 50m. Yesterday, I was shooting all over the target at pratice and it didn’t go much better during the matches. I won one in the shoot-off and lost the next one. Today, I had a good feeling right from the start of the practice. It gave some me confidence and I shot really well in both my finals (winning bronze in team and gold in mixed team).   Didier MIEVILLE World Archery Communication