Archers ready for Edinburgh World Cup Final

Marco GALIAZZO (ITA)   
  We look forward to seeing all archery fans in East Princes Street Gardens for a fantastic weekend of exciting competition and entertainment. The archers will play matches in best of five sets of three arrows; many of the games should go to the wire!   The recurve women and compound men will play on Saturday, while the recurve men and compound women will shoot on Sunday. The 32 individual athletes come from 15 countries. Three of them have been Olympic champions and 12 have been world champions at the elite level. Fifteen already participated at a World Cup Final and nine already won it. They will all play for a share of prize money and awards totalling more than 150'000 CHF.   Recurve Men The recurve men quarterfinals are Michele FRANGILLI (ITA) v Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND), KIM Woojin (KOR) v Marco GALIAZZO (ITA), IM Dong-Hyun (KOR) v Simon TERRY (GBR) and Brady ELLISON (USA) v Alan WILLS (GBR).   Here are some key notes about the finalists, extracted from their numerous feats. More results information is available here.   FRANGILLI is the man with the most medals at the very top level. He gathered 29 medals at world championships or Olympic Games in his 15-year career. He will play against TALUKDAR who will appear on his third World Cup Final after 2006 and 2009. The Indian athlete won two World Cup stages in his career. The young Korean KIM won the recent World Cup stage in Ogden, while GALIAZZO is the 2004 individual Olympic champion and the World Cup Final defender—he won it in Copenhagen last year. IM is a true archery wonder: at 24-year old, he has three team world titles, one individual world title and two team Olympic gold medals! TERRY brings a lot of experience and two Olympic bronze medals that he won in Barcelona 1992. ELLISON has burst out at the very top level this season by winning the Porec stage, while WILLS won the world archery field championships in July.      KI Bo Bae (KOR) Recurve Women The recurve women quarterfinals are YUN Ok Hee (KOR) v Alena KUZNIATSOVA (BLR), Deepika KUMARI (IND) v Victoriya KOVAL (UKR), Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) v Dola BANERJEE (IND) and KI Bo Bae (KOR) v Naomi FOLKARD (GBR).   YUN is the women with the most individual wins in World Cup stages: 4! She also won the team gold at the 2008 Olympic Games and 2009 world championships. She will shoot against KUZNIATSOVA, who has been consistently among the top for the last two years. At 16-year old only, KUMARI is the youngest participant and was the cadet world champion in 2009. She was 2nd at the recent Shanghai World Cup Stage. Her opponent KOVAL won the stage in Antalya this year. The dual between MOSPINEK and BANERJEE features two previous World Cup Final winners: in 2007 for the Indian and in 2008 for the Polish athlete. KI is the new Korean wonder on the women’s side and she won three gold medals at the stage in Shanghai (individual, team, mixed team). FOLKARD is an experienced archer and her best individual result is 2nd place at the European championships in 2008.   Sergio PAGNI (ITA)    Compound Men The compound men quarterfinals are Shaun TEASDALE (NZL) v Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN), Martin DAMSBO (DEN) v Sergio PAGNI (ITA), Jorge JIMENEZ (ESA) v Roger WILLET JR. (USA) and Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) v Chris WHITE (GBR).   TEASDALE just qualified for Edinburgh by winning the last World Cup stage in Shanghai. He will play against TRILLUS who was the 2007 world champion and 2008 World Cup Final winner. DAMSBO won the stage in Antalya 2010, but PAGNI has won four stages in his career and the World Cup Final in Copenhagen last year! JIMENEZ won the Final in Dubai 2007, while WILLET was team world champion in 2007. At 24-year old only, GELLENTHIEN has already numerous wins in his career, including the last four team world champion titles! WHITE is a former world record holder in archery.   Compound Women The compound women quarterfinals are Sandrine VANDIONANT (FRA) v Albina LOGINOVA (RUS), Ashley WALLACE (CAN) v Jamie VAN NATTA (USA), Erika ANSCHUTZ (USA) v Linda OCHOA (MEX) and Nicky HUNT (GBR) v Andrea GALES (GBR).   VANDIONANT has made a come back at the top level this year and won the Ogden stage. She will play against LOGINOVA who is the current individual and team world champion. WALLACE has burst out on the international scene this season with a victory in Porec, while VAN NATTA has won numerous medals in her career including gold at the World Cup Final in 2008. ANSCHUTZ won the stage in Antalya, while OCHOA just qualified (for one point) for Edinburgh thanks to her 2nd place in Shanghai. The last quarterfinal will be an all-British affair. HUNT seems to have the upper hand with already for podium finishes at world cup stages, while GALES has one.      Nicky HUNT (GBR) Team GBR Six British athletes will compete at Edinburgh World Cup Final. After winning a gold medal at the final World Cup tournament in Shanghai at last weekend, Nicky HUNT qualified automatically for the women’s compound event in Edinburgh in top spot overall. Simon TERRY ('The Silver Fox') also secured his place in the World Cup Final by virtue of finishing among the seven best performers in the Olympic discipline of recurve during the four qualifying events of the World Cup season.   For both archers it will be their second successive appearance at the World Cup Final. Last year in Copenhagen, Terry was a silver medallist in the men's recurve, while Hunt took fourth place in women's compound.   As host nation of the prestigious World Cup Final, Great Britain also have one male and one female wild card in each discipline in addition to those who have automatically qualified by their World Cup ranking. Judged on their performances at World Cup events this year, GB archers Alan WILLS and Naomi FOLKARD (in recurve) and Andrea GALES and Chris WHITE (in compound) have been handed the opportunity to shoot on home soil for World Cup gold and a share of prize money and awards totalling more than 150,000.- CHF.   For WILLS, it will be a second appearance at a World Cup Final—he was a bronze medallist in Dubai three years ago. He was also part of the GB team at the Beijing Olympics, as was FOLKARD, who will be making her World Cup Final debut. GALES and WHITE will also be World Cup Final first timers.   In each discipline the best mixed teams of the World Cup season will also go to Edinburgh to shoot against the hosts Great Britain. In the recurve mixed team competition, team USA composed of Brady ELLISON and Jennifer NICHOLS will compete against Simon TERRY and Naomi FOLKARD. In the compound mixed team event, team Mexico, who finally won the place by claiming the gold medal in Shanghai, represented by Hafid JAIME and Linda OCHOA, will compete against Chris WHITE and Nicky HUNT.   Party in the Centre of Edinburgh As well as the best archery in the world, there will be some interesting and unique entertainment for spectators on both days of competition. Watch out for Clanadonia, Big Rory, piper, the Scottish Commonwealth team and some of the best commentators in UK sport, all adding to the archery action.   A natural sporting amphitheatre, East Princes Street Gardens is going to be transformed into a major sporting arena, excepting several thousands spectators over the weekend. There are limited grandstand seats available for reservation at £5 per day, click below to reserve your seat: www.archeryedinburgh.co.uk/the-event/reserving-seats. Any seats still available on the day are free to the public.   Edinburgh World Cup Final Organising Committee / World Archery Communication