First elimination day in Guangzhou

First elimination day in Guangzhou Guangzhou (CHN) – 13 December 2010   The sky was very overcast and the breeze was quite cool for many of the archers from warmer countries. The first rounds of match play saw some surprising results, with top seeds tumbling out in the quarterfinals of several divisions.   Perhaps one of the most surprising results was in the recurve men W1/W2 division where LEE Hong Gu (KOR) fought a close match with the N. 1 seed from the previous day’s ranking round, TSENG Lung from Chinese Taipei. LEE won the first set, the second set was tied and then they alternated winning sets to finish the match 5 set points each. In the tie-break they both shot 9s with LEE winning the match with the arrow closer to the centre.   In the same division seeded No. 10 Roham SHAHABIPOR (IRI) ousted the N. 2 seed JUNG Young Joo (KOR), coming back from 4-2 set points down to win by 6 set points to 4. Another of the men’s top seeds to fall was No. 2 KIM Young Ok (KOR) who was rather easily beaten by No. 7 Kimimasa ONODERA (JPN) 6 set points to 2 in the recurve men Standing division.   An exciting match between No. 1 seed Kazumasa HATTORI (JPN) and No. 4 HSU Jui Jen (TPE) in the compound men Open saw HATTORI beat his opponent on a measure of the closer arrow to the centre after they tied with 5 sets points each and both scoring 9s in the tie break.   More upsets were to follow in the compound women Open where No. 8 seed YU Sun Deok (KOR) and No. 1 ZENG Dongdi (CHN) were tied at 5 set points all, but the Korean archer held her nerve to win the tie break by 9 points to 8 and clinch the quarterfinal match.   New world record holder GAO Fangxia (CHN) was untroubled in her quarterfinal match winning 6 set points to nil in the recurve women Standing division. On the advice of the Organising Committee the programme for Days 3 and 4 have been changed because the weather forecast for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning are for very strong winds and heavy rain.   The afternoon semifinal matches for women have been brought forward to Wednesday morning and the men’s medal matches scheduled for Thursday morning have been delayed until the afternoon. This will require very precise work by Judges and DOS to see the time table is met or the light may fade and some matches held over to the following day.   The full results can be found on the competition's website here.     Carole HICKS World Archery Communication