Turkey and Italy become co-world record holders!

The team event of the Indoor World Championships Rzeszow 2009 started on Saturday morning 7 March with the junior class. The team matches were shot until the semi-finals and the finals will take place on Sunday morning. In the recurve junior men’s category, two teams beat the 24-arrow world record with 234 points. Turkey and Italy have become co-world record holder. The senior teams will venture onto the field in the afternoon.   Recurve Junior Men The Turkish team set the tone in the first round of the morning with a new world record at 234 points for the 24-arrow team match. Seeded no. 7, the young BOZLAR, CINAR and YILMAZ beat the Americans (no. 10) to face one of the favourite teams, Italy photo in the quarterfinal. Setting a new world record was probably too much emotion for the young Turks who completely missed the point in their second match scoring only 213 points. Seeded no. 2, the Italians GIORI, MELOTTO and PAOLETTA proved they were to be reckoned with also shooting 234 and becoming co-world record holders.   “It was hard! They came from a new world record and we were from a bye. We trusted in ourselves and we started the match. I don’t know what happened to them, but we didn’t lose our concentration and we equaled their record,” Lorenzo GIORI (ITA) said.   In the semi-final, Italy faced the no. 3 seed Chinese Taipei. In a close match between two of the favourite teams, KAO, PENG and YU finally took over their opponents from Europe. The second semi-final match was between Ukraine (no. 1) and Germany (5). The young IVANYTSKYY, KOMONYUK and MARCHENKO proved too strong for their German contenders, MAYR, NESEMANN and WACHSMUTH. After already shooting the good score of 232 in the previous round against Russia, the Ukrainians put it off against the Germans 232-215.   On Sunday morning, Ukraine will face Chinese Taipei for gold, while Germany and Italy will fight for bronze.   Recurve Junior Women In this category, the top 4 teams—Ukraine, Russia, Chinese Taipei and Poland—qualified for the semi-finals, but then surprise came from the local team Poland. In an extremely tight match against Ukraine, the young BARAKONSKA, KAMINSKA and WYCZECHOWSKA managed to keep a small 1-point lead after their 24 arrows to win 225-224.   “I don't know what I can say... It's a too big emotion for me... Me and my teammates will be shooting for the gold medal in front of our public, in our arena, here in Poland. Really unbelievable”, Milena BARAKONSKA (POL) declared after winning the semi-final.   The Polish youngsters will have the Russians as opponents on Sunday morning. BOMBOEVA, DOBYCHINA and SEGINA first defeated Italy (227-220) and then Chinese Taipei (228-225). They will start as the favourites in the gold final, as they are the no. 2 seeded, but the Poles will be cheered up by their fans and might create another upset to win the world title. Answer to be given tomorrow!   The bronze medal will be played out between no. 1 seed Ukraine and no. 3 Chinese Taipei.   Compound Junior Men The top 2 seeds—Italy and USA—qualified for the gold final to be shot on Sunday morning. Italy first took out no. 8 Ukraine 230-218 and then no. 5 Spain 235-227. With this score of 235 points, they came very close to the world record held by Switzerland with 236. They even could have beaten it with a perfect last 60-points end.   “In the last end, we had to shoot a perfect 60 to beat the world record. Unfortunately, my first arrow was a 9 so we went on shooting in the 'easy way'”, Luca FANTI (ITA) said.   The USA team also scored 235 points in their first match versus no. 7 Poland to win 235-220. In the semi-final, ABERNETHY, CLELAND and SCHAFF—new 12-arrow match world record from yesterday with 120 points—defeated the no. 6 seeded team, Turkey.   While the world championship’s title will be decided between Italy and USA, Spain and Turkey will battle for the bronze medal.   Compound Junior Women With only five teams and Ukraine’s withdrawal from the first round, the compound junior women’s teams directly shot the semi-finals. The no. 1 seed USA shot against no. 4 Poland and faced no real opposition to win 228-213. The no. 2 team Russia shot against no. 3 Italy and won 228-222.   The US team of LANCE, NICELY and PRUITTE will shoot for gold on Sunday morning against the Russian team photo made up of ARTEMOVA, CHERKASHNEVA and KOROBEYNIKOVA, after Poland and Italy have decided on which team will take the bronze medal home.   FITA Communication