The Italian LIONETTI shakes the Koreans

  Recurve Men It was a difficult beginning for the Italian recurve men. Ilario DI BUO (32) was out in the second round already (4-6), beaten by Sermet CINAR (TUR/33). The 2004 Olympic champion and 2009 World Cup Final winner Marco GALIAZZO (10) suffered defeat also after two matches. He was kicked out by Bair BADENOV (RUS/58) on the score of 6-4. Michele FRANGILLI (12) remains however, but he went through difficult matches, being led 0-4 by Dmitri DANCOV (AZE/101) in the first round before winning 6-4 and going to a shoot-off at 5-5 against Lars EGGESTIG (SWE/53) in the second round. Only Mauro NESPOLI (13) had two easy victories 6-4 and 7-3 over Baasanjav DOLGORSUREN (MGL/100) and Philippe ARSENAULT (CAN/61).   After a rather calm first round of elimination (1/48), some other favourites suffered upset in 1/24. The No. 9 seed Rahul BANERJEE (IND) was defeated by No. 57 Hugh MAC DONALD (CAN), 6-2. After defeating the No. 24 in the first round, Daniel PACHECO (COL), seeded No. 89, got over the No. 41 Daniel MORILLO (ESP) 7-3 in the 1/48 round. PACHECO then qualified for the 1/8 round beating Hugh MAC DONALD (CAN/57) 6-0!   In 1/16 elimination Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA), seeded No. 8 and exempted from the first two rounds suffered an upset in a close match against Viktor RUBAN (UKR/25). In the shoot-off, the Frenchman first released a 9 which was overtaken by a 10 by his opponent from Ukraine. Another member of the French team was eliminated in his first match and in a shoot-off: Romain GIROUILLE, No. 4, shot an 8 in the tie-break, same score as Hristo HRISTOV (BUL/77), but the Bulgarian's arrow was closest to the centre to offer him victory.   HRISTOV's teammate and No. 99 seed Vencislav VELIKOV defeated three archers who were of a higher rank to qualify for the 1/8 round: Andres GOMES (ESP/14), David MARIN (MEX/62) and Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND/19). Another upset was the elimination of the No. 7 from Mexico Juan Rene SERRANO who lost 3-7 to another Spanish-speaking athlete Antonio FERNANDEZ (ESP/39).   The two Britons still competing in 1/8 round, Larry GODFREY (3) and Simon TERRY (22) suffered different fates. While TERRY did not have a say against the reigning World Cup winner Brady ELLISON (USA/6) with a defeat 0-6, GODFREY had a quite easy victory (6-2) over VELIKOV for whom the good run ended finally. The No. 89 Daniel PACHECO (COL) also came down to earth when he faced the experienced and reigning Olympic champion Viktor RUBAN (UKR/25): 6-0 for the Ukrainian!   The last Italian in the competition, FRANGILLI, suffered defeat in 1/8 elimination, 0-6 against KIM Woojin (KOR/5). While another Korean, the No. 1 seed OH Jin Hyek, went on with an easy win (7-1) over Tarundeep RAI (IND/16), his teammate IM Dong-Hyun (2) was kicked off by Jake KAMISNKI (USA/15) by the irrevocable score of 6-0.   Incredible upset in quarterfinal with the defeat of No. 1 OH Jin Hyek! Though in the lead 2-0 and 3-1 after the first two sets against the Olympic champion RUBAN, the Korean saw his contender from Ukraine come back to 3-3 and take the lead 5-3 before the last set. Shooting both 26 points to clinch the match, the score remained in favour of RUBAN (6-4). OH's teammate KIM Woojin (5) remained the sole Korean representative in semifinal after a win 6-2 over Alexander KOZHIN (RUS/20).   After upsetting the No. 2 seeded competitor in the previous round, the American KAMINSKI continued with an easy victory (6-0) over the lowest ranked competitor of the round, Antonio FERNANDEZ (ESP/39). The last semi-finalist was decided after a very exciting match between two English-speaking contenders: Larry GODFREY (GBR/3) and Brady ELLISON (USA/6). The match finally went to a shoot-off in which the winner of the 2010 Longines Prize for Precision proved this title was deserved. ELLISON's tie-break arrow hit the X10 zone, offering victory to the American.   In the 100% American semifinal, the World Cup ELLISON defender was given a hard time by his teammate KAMINSKY. In the lead 4-0 after the first two sets, KAMINSKY saw ELLISON come back slowly but surely. With a perfect third set (X10-X10-10), the latter was still behind at 2-4. He then took advantage of a 25-point set by KAMINSKY to tie the match at 4-4. In the last set, a triple 9 was not enough for KAMMISKY to resist his teammate, who clinched victory with 9-X10-9.   In the second semifinal the Ukrainian RUBAN was not consistent enough to be the winner. The Korean KIM took the lead 3-1 in the first set and never let it go, despite all the efforts RUBAN pushed into the game: 3-1, 5-1, 5-3, and 7-3.   Recurve Women Second last year here in Porec and only seeded No. 28 this year, Alena KUZNIATZOVA (BLR) suffered defeat in 1/24 already, 0-6 against Karina LIPIARSKA (POL/37). Justyna MOSPINEK (POL/21)—2008 World Cup title holder and winner of the 2010 Longines Prize for Precision—lost in the second round also, 1-7 against Sigrid ROMERO (COL/44). Another upset at the same stage was for Naomi FOLKARD (GBR/9) who lost 4-6 to Anneli PREIMANN (EST/57). The No. 12 and 13 seeds suffered the same fate: Khatuna NARIMANIDZE (GEO/12) versus Iria GRANDAL (ESP/60) and Elena TONETTA (ITA/13) versus Ana UMER (SLO/61), both matches ending on a 0-6 score.   The third round (1/16) features an all-Russian match between Ksenia PEROVA (40) and Natalya ERDYNIYEVA (8), reigning individual and team European champion. The two young ladies remained close to each other all match long, finishing on a tie at 5-5. In the shoot-off ERDYNIYEVA shot just a little quicker than her fellow countrywoman to score a good 9, close to the 10 ring. With an 8 only, PEROVA let victory go away.   Winner of the Commonwealth Games in her home country India last year, Deepika KUMARI was seeded No. 4 after the qualification round. Exempted from the first two rounds of elimination she faced No. 37 Karina LIPIARSKA (POL) in 1/16. The Indian was leading 4-0 after two sets, but thanks to a 10 liner, LIPIARSKA could win the third set to come back to 2-4. In the fourth set the Pole took advantage of two 8s by her opponent to tie up the match at 4-4. With one 9 and two 10s in the final set LIPIARSKA clinched victory 6-4 over KUMARI.   The all-Italian match of the 1/8 round had Pia Carmen LIONETTI (20) and Natalia VALEEVA (4) shoot against each other. The two were tied after four sets at 4-4. In the fifth set, the 24-year-old LIONETTI scored 28, while her experienced opponent and world champion on several occasions could only score 27 to suffer defeat 4-6. Sigrid ROMERO (COL/44) and Karina LIPIARSKA (POL/37) needed a shoot-off to decide on the winner. The Colombian made the difference with a 10, versus an 8 for her contender. The three top seeded Koreans, JUNG Dasomi (1), KI Bo Bae (2) and HAN Gyeonghee (3), did not face enough opposition and all qualified for the quarterfinals.   In the quarterfinals, the three Koreans went on with easy matches: JUNG defeated ERDYNIYEVA 6-2; HAN kicked off Maja Buskbjerg JAGER (DEN/22) 6-0; and same score for KI against Seema VERMA (IND). The only semifinal spot left was taken by the Italian LIONETTI, who beat Sigrid ROMERO (COL/44) by 6-0 also. This success was deserved and she was to face the No. 1 JUNG next.   The two semifinals in the recurve women's category went on to shoot-offs although the score was 4-0 in both matches. In the all-Korean match between HAN and KI, the latter was in the lead after two sets, but she saw her teammate recover and tie up at 4-4. In the last set, KI scored 8-X10-X10, while HAN had the same arrow marks but in another order, 10-8-10. In the tie-break they both scored a 9, but the one of HAN was closest to the centre and clinched victory.   The young LIONETTI had the difficult task to face the No. 1 qualifier Korean JUNG. The Italian was in the lead 4-0 after two sets, but she started to shake a bit, shooting an 8 in the third set and a 7 in the fourth. JUNG tied up at 4-4. Nervousness could be felt in the last set, as both ladies scored two 9s and an 8 to remain tied. LIONETTI's shoot-off arrow was a perfect bull's eye (X10), so good an arrow that it was difficult to beat… Although following with a beautiful 10, JUNG could not excel her opponent's arrow and had to concede a surprising defeat. LIONETTI was 3rd in Porec in 2006 and 2nd in 2009. Will she finally be able to get a win here? The answer will be given on Saturday in the centre of the city.   On Thursday 5 May in Porec the competition will continue with the compound elimination up to the semifinals in the morning and the mixed team elimination to the bronze medal matches in the afternoon.   Stayed tuned at www.worldarchery.org!   World Archery Communication