What a match between ELLISON and FRANGILLI!

  Recurve Men  Brady ELLISON (USA) vs Michele FRANGILLI (ITA) The leader from qualifications and winner of the last World Cup stage in Porec Brady ELLISON have met the 2003 World Champion FRANGILLI once in the past. It was here in Antalya at the 2007 World Cup stage 3, and FRANGILLI won 107-104.   This time, Brady ELLISON suffered from an 8 in the first set and lost the two set points to FRANGILLI. Brady then shot two 10s and a 9 just out of the 10 ring, while FRANGILLI did 10-10-10 to lead 4-0. A bad 6 from FRANGILLI in the third set allowed ELLISON to stay in the match. Then, Brady won the fourth set 30-26 to tie the match. The winner of the next set would win the match. Both archers shot 29 points in the fifth set to advance to the shoot-off. Brady’s arrow landed just out of the 10 ring, while FRANGILLI’s was just on the line. He will shoot the gold medal final. What a match! It was a perfect example of how intense can a Set System match be!   Crispin DUENAS: This was a very tight and very interesting match. FRANGILLI’s 6 was a surprise and that was the decider for the tie in regulation time. The shoot-off was very close but FRANGILLI came out on top shooting a 10 on the line. Great shooting from both archers.   Shungo TABATA (JPN) vs JING Xianqing (CHN) The other semifinal was between the No. 14 Shungo TABATA and the No. 15 JING Xianqing. The archers tied at 1-1 (25-25) after the first set. TABATA looked much more relaxed than the Chinese archer and took the lead with 9-9-10 to 9-9-9 in the second set. JING won the third set 28-27 to tie at 3-3. The score then moved to 4-4 and again, it all came down to the last set. Shooting first, JING did 10-9-10, finishing at the very last second. His opponent couldn’t match JING’s total of 29, and so the Chinese archer will shoot the final against FRANGILLI.   Crispin DUENAS: The Japanese TABATA looked very relaxed from the beginning of the match and JING looked very focused. TABATA started to tense up and become too careful, whereas the Chinese archer did not change. JING had a problem and he had to put his bow down with only 4 seconds remaining in the final set! Still he managed to shoot a 10 in a hurry and beat TABATA.   Recurve Women  Victoriya KOVAL (UKR) vs Dola BANERJEE (IND) The No. 16 KOVAL won the first set 8-9-9 to 7-7-X10, but the No. 20 BANERJEE really increased her level to take the next one with 10-10-9 to 8-8-9 and tied at 2-2. KOVAL’s good scores of 9-10-9 allowed her to take back the lead 4-2. In the fourth set, BANERJEE shot a 6 for her second arrow, which cost her the set and a place in the gold medal final.   Crispin DUENAS: Victoriya looked very solid, although most of her arrows were on the right side of the target.   Ksenia PEROVA (RUS) vs Inna STEPANOVA (RUS) The 21-year-old PEROVA has the experience of several World Cup events, but it is her first appearance at this stage of the competition. The 20-year-old STEPANOVA was 3rd at the 2008 World University Championships and placed 2nd at the recent European Championships. These two girls won the team silver together yesterday.   STEPANOVA had the best start at 10-8-9, while PEROVA suffered a bad first set (9-9-7). However she made a perfect come-back in the second set (30 points) to beat STEPANOVA’s total of 28 and tie at 2-2. The scores of the third set were 8-8-8 for PEROVA and 10-8-6 for STEPANOVA, meaning the athletes were tied at 3-3. After both scored 9-9-10 to tie at 4-4, it all came to the last set. PEROVA shot first and with 8-9-8, allowed STEPANOVA to pass her with 10-9-10. STEPANOVA will meet KOVAL in the gold medal final.   Crispin DUENAS: STEPANOVA just maintained her form for a longer period than PEROVA and managed to shoot more 10s. STEPANOVA’s 6 was a mystery but could be due to the changing wind conditions. Either way she won.   Compound Men   Martin DAMSBO (DEN) vs Vladas SIGAUSKAS (LTU) The 25-year-old Martin DAMSBO has a lot of experience on the World Cup: he was 4th in Porec and 5th last year in Antalya. His major achievement came at the 2007 Worlds, where he placed 3rd. DAMSBO recently placed 7th at the European Championships in Rovereto, where SIGAUSKAS was 4th.   DAMSBO and SIGAUSKAS met for the first time here in Antalya. They both started with two hits to tie at 1-1. DAMSBO had one more hit than his opponent in the second (3 to 2) and in the third set (2-1) to win the match 5-1 and advance to his first gold medal final.   Benoît BINON: Vladas SIGAUSKAS seemed very, very motivated to reach his first international final after many semifinals, but Martin DAMSBO shot very well. He only missed twice and they were only 1 cm from the hit zone. Martin’s accuracy allowed him to reach his gold final at the World Cup!  Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) vs – Rodger WILLET Jr. (USA)
The 24-year-old GELLENTHIEN already has a lot of experience. The 2003 world silver medallist is also a multiple World Cup event winner (2009 World Cup stage 1 in Santo Domingo, 2007 Stage 2 in Varese). He was also Indoor world champion in 2007 in Izmir and 2nd at the 2007 World Cup Final. He is four times running outdoor team world champion!   Braden probably wanted to do better than at last year’s Antalya World Cup, where he was the silver medallist. Today he had a perfect start with three hits to lead 2-0 against his compatriot. The level was very high, both archers shooting three hits in the second set. One miss by Braden cost him the third set, but he came back to perfection in the next set to win the match 5-3.   Benoît BINON: This semifinal started on a very high level. Braden GELLENTHIEN was leading 3-1 after two sets thanks to six consecutive hits. This type of target face corresponds to his aggressive shooting style and Braden was able to take this opportunity. By shooting a hit in his last arrow, he won this semifinal. In doing so, he erases his counter-performance from Porec. For now this is the best match we have seen under the new rules (11 out of 12 possible hits for Braden).   Compound Women   Erika ANSCHUTZ (USA) vs Anne LANTEE (FIN) A former Youth world champion, Erika had defeated the world champion Albina LOGINOVA from Russia to advance to the semifinal. As for LANTEE, she beat the European Champion Viktoria BALZHANOVA (RUS) and already competed in a semifinal at the World Cup stage 2 last year. She recently placed 6th in Rovereto.   In the first encounter between these two archers, Erika ANSCHUTZ won the first set 3-1. But the young American managed only one hit in the next two sets, won by LANTEE 2-0 and 2-1. The archer from Finland led 4-2. ANSCHUTZ came back with two hits to one in the fourth set to tie at 4-4. She won the shoot-off by hitting, and advanced to the gold medal final. She has already done better than in Porec last month, where she had placed 4th.   Benoît BINON: The two ladies put six arrows on the left side of the target face, showing that they did not find the right settings from the practice field, where there is very little wind, and the final field. Despite a very good first set with three hits and a solid technique, Erika ANSCHUTZ had some problems later on. Her experience probably helped her to finally win this semi-final in the shoot-off. She needed only 50% of hits to win. She was 4th in Porec and now shooting for the final in Antalya, so she will be up high in the World Cup Final ranking.  Nicky HUNT (GBR) vs Ashley WALLACE (CAN) This is the revenge of the Porec final, where Ashley WALLACE defeated Nicky HUNT in a shoot-off. Ashley was 5th in Ulsan, while Nicky was 4th at the World Cup Final in Copenhagen and recently placed 7th at the European Championships in Rovereto. She had won in Porec in 2009.   Here in Antalya, Nicky HUNT won the first set 2-1. Both archers shot two hits in the second set and one in the third, moving the score to 3-1 and 4-2 for HUNT. The British archer hit only one arrow in the last set, enough to beat Ashley WALLACE who didn’t shoot any arrow in the yellow. HUNT will shoot the final against Erika ANSCHUTZ.   Benoît BINON: Like during the first semifinal, the two ladies started the match with arrows on the left side of the target face. Nicky HUNT still found the hit zone with her second and third arrow, which gave her the first set. The fact that the athletes only shoot one arrow on the three different faces on the target does not help them to find the right setting. Moreover, the difficulty is increased because the Hit/Miss system is new. With this second women semifinal, 50% of hits were again enough to reach the final. With her second final in a row, Nicky confirms she is among the very top of the world and probably can book her ticket to the Final in Edinburgh.   The World Cup stage 2 continues this afternoon with the individual finals.   Vanahé ANTILLE World Archery Communication