The Road to the World Cup Final

  Today the elimination matches took place. Let’s have a look per category on how the drama unfolded.   Archers shot their individual elimination matches and all used the Set Systems, i.e. best of three sets of six arrows until the 1/8 eliminations, then best of five sets of three arrows as of the quarterfinals. Two points per set won, one point per set tied. In case of tie at the end of the match a shoot-off with only one arrow takes place.   Athletes were fighting two things: the right to shoot for a medal in Shanghai and the qualifications for the Edinburgh World Cup Final as being one of the top 7 in the World Cup Ranking. The ranking is done on points gathered during all of the 2010 Archery World Cup Stages in Porec, Antalya, Ogden and Shanghai.   Simon Terry (GBR) v Sebastien FLUTE (FRA)    Recurve Men The first round presented a superb battle of the 1992 Olympic Games medallists! The winner in 92, Sebastien FLUTE (FRA) made his return to the very highest level at this World Cup in Shanghai! After qualifications he was paired (what a chance!?) with the 92 bronze medallist Simon TERRY (GBR). Both archers started with a set of 53 points (10-9-9-9-8-8 for FLUTE and 9-9-9-9-9-8 for TERRY), then the French athlete scored 10-9-9-8-8-9 for another 53 points, better than the 8-10-8-9-9-9 of TERRY (50 points). Roles were reversed in the last set. FLUTE had 9-9-7-9-8-8 but TERRY shot 8-10-8-9-9-9 (50 to 53) to tie the match at 3 set points a piece. In the one arrow shoot-off, they both scored 9 but TERRY was the closest to the centre and won the match!  Other notable results were Aki VIRTANEN (FIN) beating Baljinina TSYREMPILOV (RUS) 5-1 (56-54, 55-55, 57-55) and ZHAO Shenzhou who won against XING Yu 4-0 (56-54, 56-54). Crispin DUENAS (CAN) beat friend and teammate Hugh MAC DONALD 4-0 (56-52, 56-51) and finally one World Cup Final contender went down in a shoot-off: CHENG Chu Sian (TPE) who lost against Hideki KIKUSHI 3-4 (52-52, 54-56, 55-54; T9-T10). One contender stayed alive in a shoot-off: Jake KAMINSKI (USA) beat Maxim KUNDA (BLR) 4-3 (57-56, 54-54, 58-52, T9*-T9). The American was just closest to the centre in the shoot-off.   In the second round, TERRY met with DUENAS. The Canadian took the first set 53-52, but TERRY was slightly better in the second set (10-9-9-9-9-8 for 54 vs 9-9-9-10-10-8 for 53). In the decisive set the Brit shot 9-9-7-9-7-10 for 51. DUENAS had a great group 9-9-10-10-9-10 to score 57 and win the match 4-2. The big performance came from the No. 29 seed SUNG Chia Chun (TPE). He beat the No. 4 seed OH Jin-Hyek (KOR) 4-2 (56-53, 60-54, 57-56).   The 1/8 elimination round for this last and final stage of the World Cup had really big names of archery. The man who has won the most world medals, Michelle FRANGILLI (ITA) took on KAMINSKI. FRANGILLI shot 10-10-10-9-9-9 and 10-9-8-8-10-9 while KAMINSKI had 10-10-9-9-9-8 and 9-8-8-9-10-8. A few arrows from the American were just out of the superior ring. Small difference, big effect, as FRANGILLI prevailed 4-0 (57-55, 54-52). The other American Brady ELLISON, winner in Porec this year, shot against Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) who won in Porec in 2006 and 2009. They were tied at 2-2. In the last set ELLISON shot very well except for one arrow that ended just in the 7 ring (it was close to be a 6): 10-10-9-10-7-10 for 56 points. TALUKDAR had 8-10-10-9-10-9 for 56 points. In the shoot-off the American shot 10, while the Indian athlete shot X10 to win the match! DUENAS took on the 2008 Olympic Champion Viktor RUBAN (UKR). Out of 18 arrows, the Canadian had only one out of the gold: 10-10-10-10-9-9, then 10-9-9-9-9-10-9 and 9-10-10-9-8-9. Pretty good shooting. However, RUBAN had no arrows out of the yellow: 10-10-9-9-9-9, then 10-10-9-10-9-10 and 10-9-10-9-9-10. The Ukrainian won 4-2 (55-58, 58-56, 57-55). In other notable results, LEE Chang-Hwan (KOR) beat the Shanghai winner last year CHEN Wenyuan 4-0 (57-55, 57-54). The last two Koreans had to shoot three sets to win. IM Dong-Hyun beat the 2007 Ulsan winner KUO Cheng Wei 5-1 (58-57, 55-55, 57-54) and the winner in Ogden last month KIM Woojin defeated Tarundeep RAI (IND) 4-2 (58-59, 56-53, 57-55).   The quarterfinals of all the categories took place together at the end of the afternoon. The match with the two Korean wonders IM and KIM of course went to the last set, or should we say to the last arrow. Scores were tied at 4 set points apiece then both archers shot a 10 and a 9. On the last arrow experience prevailed as IM shot 10 and KIM 8. Total score 6-4 (30-29, 28-29, 27-28, 28-26, 29-27). The other Korean, LEE, also had to go through five sets against FRANGILLI. LEE shot a perfect 30 at the end to clinch the match 7-3 (29-27, 27-29, 27-27, 29-26, 30-28). In the other quarterfinals GALIAZZO beat SUNG Chia Chun in a match that proved to be decisive for the World Cup Final berth. The Italian won 6-2 (28-27, 27-29, 29-27, 29-28). Finally Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) defeated RUBAN (UKR) 6-4 (26-26, 29-29, 26-28, 29-27, 27-28). All the quarterfinal winners, except LEE who had no points prior to Shanghai, also earned a berth at the Edinburgh World Cup Final!   The two Koreans dominated the semifinals. IM beat GALIAZZO 6-2 (29-27, 27-29, 30-28, 29-27). LEE defeated TALUKDAR 6-2 (30-27, 29-27, 28-29, 29-28). IM against LEE, which will be a revenge match of the final at the world championships last year! LEE won that time.   The Shanghai individual gold and bronze medal matches will be contested on Saturday.   The Magnificient 7 who qualified for the Edinburgh World Cup Final are: ELLISON, KIM, FRANGILLI, TERRY, GALIAZZO, IM and TALUKDAR.   In each category a British wild card will be chosen by the host Archery GB as the 8th finalist in Edinburgh.      Berengere SCHUH (FRA) Recurve Women The first big casualty on the competition field today was Victoriya KOVAL (UKR). The winner in Antalya lost 0 set points to 4 (52-53, 53-54) against I. Y. ROCHMAWATI (INA). A couple of archers that had a long shot at the World Cup final were also eliminated. Jennifer NICHOLS (USA) was tied with Ayaka SAITON (JPN) at 3-3, but she lost the shoot-off 9-10. The end score was 3-4(52-51, 57-58, 53-53, T9-T10). Same for Ksenia PEROVA (RUS) who lost a shoot-off against Jessica TOMASI (ITA) 3-4 (52-50, 45-54, 54-54, T6-T9). Mariana AVITIA (MEX) was beaten by WU Hui Ju (TPE) 1-5 (51-56, 47-47, 54-59) and in the last noticeable result, Tatiana BORODAY (RUS) won against ZHU Shanshan (CHN) 2-4 (54-56, 55-50, 55-56).   The closest match of the 1/16 elimination round was between Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) and Elena KUZNETSOVA. Both archers scored 53 points (MOSPINEK 9-10-8-9-9-8, KUZNETSOVA 9-9-10-9-7-9) to tie at 1-1 after the first set. The Belarusian, shooting almost twice as fast as her opponent, scored 9-10-10-10-8-10 in the second set (total 57) against MOSPINEK’s 8-8-9-9-10-8 (52) to take the lead 3-1. The archer from Poland came back strongly with 55 points in the decisive set (9-9-8-10-10-9), while her opponent from Belarus couldn’t find the 10 ring at this stage (8-9-8-9-8-8, total 51). The score moved to 3-3 and a strong wind started to blow as the archers prepared for the shoot-off. MOSPINEK looked more confident and shot a 9, followed by an 8 from KUZNETSOVA. The 2008 World Cup champion advanced to the 1/8 elimination round.   The 2009 World Cadet Champion Deepika KUMARI (IND) defeated Denmark’s Carina CHRISTIANSEN 4-2 (53-51, 52-54, 57-54). Also qualified are Inna STEPANOVA (RUS), Naomi FOLKARD (GBR), Berengere SCHUH (FRA) and Dola BANERJEE (IND). After eliminating Mariana AVITIA (MEX) in the previous round, Chinese Taipei’s WU Hui Ju defeated the no. 8 from qualifications, young Elena RICHTER from Germany with a score of 4-0 (57-53, 56-55).   In the 1/8 elimination round, MOSPINEK suffered against the Japanese Ayaka SAITO. The scores were very close with the archers tied at 1-1 in the first set and then SAITO shot just one point better (9-8-10-8-10-9 against 9-9-10-10-8-9). SAITO led 3-1, but MOSPINEK came back in the third set, cheered on loudly by the Belarusian archer KUZNETSOVA, whom she had just beaten in the previous round. MOSPINEK shot 10-8-10-9-10-10, enough to beat the 9-9-9-9-10-9 of her opponent. The score was tied at 3-3, and MOSPINEK entered her second shoot-off in as many matches. Both archers score a 9, but MOSPINEK’s was 1cm closer to the centre. In winning this match, the Polish archer not only qualified to the quarterfinals, but also to the World Cup Final!   In the other 1/8 elimination rounds, Deepika KUMARI and ZHANG Yunlu (CHN) both displayed very similar, inconsistent scoring in the first set, won by KUMARI 6-8-10-8-10-9 to 8-6-10-8-8-9. ZHANG had a better group in the second set, which she won 55-51 to come back to 2-2. In the third set, the roles were reversed. KUMARI shot a good group at 9-9-9-9-10-10, one point more than her opponent whose arrows were spread all over the target. KUMARI advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals, just as she had in Antalya. Her compatriot the 2007 World Cup Final champion Dola BANERJEE lost her match to Aida ROMAN (MEX) despite shooting more cumulated points than her opponent. The scores were 3-3 (56-54, 48-53, 54-54) for ROMAN after three sets. The Mexican archer took the advantage in the shoot-off, 9-8. The young TAN Ya-Ting (TPE), who placed 9th at the World Cup Stage 3 in Ogden and won silver at the Youth Olympic Games in August, faced the reigning world champion JOO Hyun-Jung (KOR), who had placed 4th at the World Cup Stage 3. Both archers tied at 1-1 in the first set, but with her scores of 9-7-8-9-5-8 TAN could not rival JOO’s 10-10-10-8-9-9. The Korean archer went on to win the match 5-1. Two more Korean girls advanced to the next round: the winner and the runner-up from Ogden, KIM Mun Joung and KI Bo Bae, respectively.   In the quarterfinals, Justyna MOSPINEK had a shaky start against WU Hui Ju (TPE). The Polish archer shot 5-10-9 in the first set to trail 24-27, 0-2. The score moved to 3-1 after both archers shot 25 points in the second set. The archer from Chinese Taipei won the third set 27-26. The scores of the last set reflect the strong wind that started to blow, bothering the archers: WU shot 10-8-5 for a total of 23, the same as MOSPINEK’s. The score moved to 6-2, victory for WU! A very tight and interesting match featured Khatuna LORIG (USA) and Deepika KUMARI. The 36 year-old American has competed in four Olympic Games, representing three different countries (the Unified Team, Georgia and finally the United States). She became an Olympic team bronze medallist in Barcelona 1992, two years before KUMARI was born. Here in Shanghai, LORIG took a 4-point lead (28-26, 29-26) over her young competitor but Khatuna suffered a third set loss at 8-9-2 (total 19) that gave two sets points to KUMARI. The archer from India must have gained confidence and went on to shoot 9-9-10 to win the fourth set 28-25 and come back to 4-4. Both archers shot 27 points in the decisive set, requiring a shoot-off to conclude the match. Shooting first, LORIG scored an 8 that Deepika beat easily with a perfect 10. Finally, let’s not forget the Korean archers competing in Shanghai. YUN Ok-Hee defeated her teammate JOO Hyun-Jung (6-4) and earned a spot to compete in semifinals against her other teammate KI Bo Bae, who had an easy victory 7-1 over Aida ROMAN (MEX).   In the semifinal between the two Korean archers, KI Bo Bae won the first two sets 28-26 and 29-28. The third set ended in a draw at 28-28. KI was now leading 5-1. YUN made a nice comeback 29-28, 3-5 in the fourth set. However KI was the best again in the final set (27-26) and won the match 7-3. In the other semifinal, KUMARI took the lead over WU Hui Ju from the very start with 28-27. She increased the margin throughout the match, winning the second set 9-9-10 to 10-9-8, and the third 10-10-9 to 9-8-7. The young archer from India won the match in three straights sets to qualify for her first senior gold medal final against KI Bo Bae.   In the Recurve Women category, the archers qualified for the World Cup Final in Edinburgh are Justyna MOSPINEK (POL), Elena KUZNETSOVA (BLR), GUO Faping (CHN), KI Bo Bae (KOR), YUN Ok-Hee (KOR) and Deepika KUMARI (IND). No less than four archers are standing in the 7th and final spot: Victoriya KOVAL (UKR), Dola BANERJEE (IND), ZHU Shanshan (CHN) and Sabrina STRUYF (BEL). The final berth will be decided by the new World Ranking List that will be published after Shanghai.   Reo WILDE (USA) v Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN)    Compound Men Most favourites had a bye in the 1/32 elimination round. Among the archers who could still hope to qualify for the World Cup Final, the 2007 World Champion Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN) won his match, and so did the world record holder of the FITA round Peter ELZINGA. Seppie CILLIERS (RSA), Stephen CLIFTON (NZL), Clint FREEMAN (AUS) and Rodger WILLET Jr. all qualified for the 1/16 elimination round. However the qualification was compromised for the bronze medallist from Antalya Vladas SIGAUSKAS, who was defeated by Nico BENADE (RSA). An interesting match featured Anton KHLYSCHENKO (RUS), a young archer who has competed on the World Cup circuit since 2009, and the Swiss archer Philippe HORNER. The latter became individual and team Paralympic European champion in August. On that occasion he had also set a new Paralympic world record at 701 points, becoming the first man to reach the 700-point barrier. In today’s match, Philippe HORNER won the first set but his opponent took the second to come back at 2-2. The match ended in a draw after both archers shot the same scores in the third set. In the shoot-off, KHLYSCHENKO was perfect with a 10 to take the victory over HORNER, who shot 9.   In the 1/16 elimination round, Braden GELLENTHIEN and Clint FREEMAN were tied at 1-1 after the first set, but the American increased his level to lead 3-1 and finally 5-1. Meanwhile the archer from Malaysia Moho Kaharudoin ASAH was shooting good sets but could do little against the current world champion Reo WILDE. The American led 3-1 going into the last set and won the match with two 9s and four 10s, against four 9s and two 10s to his opponent. Another American archer who was on track for Edinburgh, Rodger WILLET Jr. lost his match against Hafid JAIME (MEX) in a shoot-off, eliminated by less than a centimetre. Seppie CILLIERS led COGHLAN 2-0 after the first set. The archer from South Africa then shot 59 points against 58 (9-10-10-9-10-10) to take the match 4-0. Despite being seeded only 24th, Dietmar TRILLUS eliminated the no. 9 Liam GRIMWOOD 4-0. The Spanish archer José DUO, who had competed in the World Cup Final last year, was eliminated at this stage.   In the 1/8 elimination round, the most impressive match was that between Hafid JAIME (MEX) and Alexander DAMBAEV (RUS). Both archers tied at 1-1 with perfect scores of 60 in the first set. They tied again at 58-58 after the second set, and 59-59 after the last. In the shoot-off both archers kept shooting the same score, of course! DAMBAEV’s 9 was a little bit closer to the centre and he was called the winner. In the other matches, the world champion Reo WILDE trailed Seppie CILLIERS 0-2 but answered with 59-57 to come back at 2-2 after two sets and to claim the match 4-2. Dietmar TRILLUS took the lead over Peter ELZINGA from the start (59-56) and went on to win the match 4-0. The winners of the World Cup Final 2007 and 2009, Jorge JIMENEZ (ESA) and Sergio PAGNI (ITA), respectively, also advanced to the quarterfinals. On the contrary, the winners of the previous World Cup stages held in 2010 were both eliminated: Martin DAMSBO, the champion from Antalya, lost to the no. 12 seed Robert TIMMS (AUS) and as for Braden GELLENTHIEN, the winner from Porec and Ogden, he lost 2-4 to Koos DE WET (RSA). DE WET’s major achievement thus far was a silver medal at the 2010 African Continental Championships in Pretoria.   The quarterfinals featured two great battles: one between two world champions and one between two World Cup Final winners. The match between the last two world individual champions Dietmar TRILLUS and Reo WILDE was to be the tightest, with both archers tying at 30-30 in the first set. WILDE took the lead in the second set with arrows at 10-9-10 against TRILLUS’ 9-10-9. The third set was identical to the first one: 30-30. The score moved to 4-2 for WILDE, but TRILLUS came back 30-29 to tie at 4-4. WILDE shot 10-9-10 and TRILLUS 9-10-10 in the last set to tie at 29-29 and 5-5. In the shoot-off, both archers shot (of course!) a perfect 10. The arrows looked so equal that the judge had to come and measure their distance from the centre. TRILLUS’ arrow was a millimetre closer and he was declared the winner.   In the battle between former World Cup winners, PAGNI lost the first set to Jorge JIMENEZ 28-29. The score moved to 3-1 after both archers shot 30 points in the second set. JIMENEZ then shot another 30 while PAGNI had 9-10-9 to trail 1-5. The Italian archer needed to win the fourth set to stay in the match and he did so with a perfect score of 30 over JIMENEZ’ 29. The score was 5-3 for the Salvadorian archer. In the fifth set, both men scored 29 points, which allowed JIMENEZ to win the match 6-4.   The other two quarterfinals featured less decorated archers. Alexander DAMBAEV scored five sets of 29 in his match against Koos DE WET. He won the first set 29-27 and tied at 29-29 in the second to lead 3-1. The South African then shot two perfect sets of 30 and gained the lead 5-3. DE WET shot 29 points in the fifth set, enough to tie and win one set point. The score moved to 6-4, victory and qualification for the South African. In the last quarterfinal, TEASDALE took the lead from the start against TIMM, shooting two sets at 30. The archer from New Zealand then shot 29 points three times, losing the third set, tying in the fourth and winning the fifth and the match with a score of 7-3.   The 21-year-old TEASDALE had an incredible semifinal match, shooting nine 10s in a row in the first three sets. Meanwhile, his opponent Dietmar TRILLUS shot 9-10-9, 10-10-9 and 10-10-10. So TEASDALE led 2-0, 4-0, 5-1. TEASDALE shot his only arrow out of the 10 ring in the fourth set (9-10-10). His score was still one point higher than TRILLUS’ 9-9-10, and the young archer from New Zealand won the match 7-1. In the other semifinal, against all expectations, the experienced Jorge JIMENEZ had difficulties against Koos DE WET. Both archers started their match superbly with 30 points. DE WET shot three more perfect scores in the second set (JIMENEZ shot 10-10-9) to take the lead 3-1. He increased the margin to 5-1 after winning the following set 29-28. The archer from El Salvador reacted in the fourth set with a perfect 30 (DE WET shot 9-9-10) to come back at 3-5. In the fifth set, both archers shot 30 points, moving the score to 6-4 - a surprise victory for Koos DE WET. The gold medal will be disputed between New Zealand and South Africa!    The seven archers who have qualified for the World Cup Final in Edinburgh are Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA), Martin DAMSBO (DEN), Sergio PAGNI (ITA), Rodger WILLET Jr. (USA), Jorge JIMENEZ (ESA), Dietmar TRLLUS (CAN) and Shaun TEASDALE (NZL).        Albina LOGINOVA (RUS) v Linda OCHOA (MEX) Compound Women The first upsets took place in the 1/16 eliminations. Saritha CHAM NONG (MAS) beat none the less than Jamie VAN NATTA (USA) in straight sets 4-0 (57-56, 58-55). Stephanie CROSKERY (NZL) also defeated Ogden winner Sandrine VANDIONANT (FRA) in straight sets 4-0 (57-56, 57-55). In other notable results Nichola SIMPSON (GBR) won against Anna KAZANTSEVA (RUS) 4-0 (58-57, 57-56) and Irina MARKOVIC (NED) beat the world silver medallist last year, the young Jorina COETZEE (RSA) 5-1 (58-55, 57-57, 59-58).   The key match of the 1/8 eliminations was that of Viktoria BALZHANOVA (RUS) and Camilla SOEMOD (DEN). The Russian shot really well in the first set with 10-10-10-10-10-9-10 to win it 59-55. The Dane raised her level a notch in the second set with 10-10-9-9-9 and a costly 8 for 56 points. BALZHANOVA shot 10-10-9-9-9-10 (57). The last 10 of BALZHANOVA versus the last 8 of SOEMOD brought a straight set victory to the Russian and kept her chance of World Cup Final alive. In the other match, the no. 1 seed Albina LOGINOVA had to dig deep into her resources to beat Parsamehr MAHTAB (IRI). The first set was tied at 58-58. The second set was tied at 56-56. In the decisive set MAHTAB scored 56. The world champion ALBINOVA finished with three 10s to score 57 and take the match.   BALZHANOVA had then to take her chance against HUNT. The first two sets were tied (10-10-9 vs 10-10-9 and 10-10-9 vs 9-10-10). HUNT then did not give any chances to her opponent. The British star scored 10-10-9 and 10-10-9 to clinch the match 6-2. However, there was another lady that was suddenly making a run at a World Cup Final berth: Linda OCHOA (MEX). With the elimination of MARKOVIC in the previous round, OCHOA had to reach the final in Shanghai to qualify to Edinburgh. The next step was to beat Diane WATSON which she did, 6-2 (29-28, 28-29, 28-27, 29-26). The other quarterfinals winners were LOGINOVA and ANSCHUTZ.   OCHOA had then to shoot against LOGINOVA in the semifinal. Last year the Russian beat the Mexican in Shanghai for the bronze medal after a two-arrow shoot-off. This time, they both started with a perfect 30, then 28 each after which OCHOA took the next two sets 29-27, 29-27 to clinch the match and a berth for the World Cup Final 6-2! HUNT beat ANSCHUTZ in the other semifinal 7-3 (29-28, 28-28, 29-28, 28-30, 29-27). HUNT reached her third gold medal final at a World Cup this year but still needs to win one!   The Magnificent 7 for Edinburgh are Ashley WALLACE (CAN), HUNT, ANSCHUTZ, VANDIONANT, LOGINOVA, VAN NATTA and OCHOA. The Mexican will reach a minimum of 31 points, while MARKOVIC has 30.   The Shanghai individual gold and bronze medal matches will be contested on Saturday.   Didier MIEVILLE / Vanahé ANTILLE World Archery Communication