4 July 2011 - The World Archery Championships started with two world records

The World Archery Championships started with two world records Turin – 4 July 2011   The World Archery Championships 2011 are taking place in Turin, Italy until 10 July. The competition started on Monday, 4 July in the 18th-century hunting residence of Stupinigi with the Recurve Women and Compound Men and Women's qualification rounds. Reo WILDE (USA) set a new individual world record for the 50m Compound Round and in the team event with teammates Jesse BROADWATER and Braden GELLENTHIEN.   As well as new world champions being crowned, the event will also allocate 35 places out of 64 per gender for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Moreover, it will be the first time that archery crowns Mixed Team world champions. The event will be directly followed by the World Archery Para Championships on 10-17 July.   Recurve Women The most important goal of the day for recurve women was to rank among the best 16 teams in order to have the chance to compete in the race for Olympic qualification (top 8 teams will earn three spots). See below for more information…   After the FITA Round's first distance (70m) the current world ranking leader KI Bo Bae (KOR) led the recurve women's qualification with 340 points. Just two points behind the Korean was KWON Un Sil (PRK), bronze medallist at the 2010 Asian Games. JUNG Dasomi (KOR), winner of World Cup Stage 2 in Antalya in June 2011, was 3rd after 36 arrows (333).   At the halfway mark — after two distances (70m and 60m)—the first two ladies KI (690 points) and KWON (677) maintained their respective top rankings. JUNG, who was 3rd after one distance, slipped down to 5th place (672). The provisional 3rd rank went to LE Chieh-Ying (TPE) with 675 points. At this time of qualification four competitors would be in a shoot-off for the last qualifying place (104th).   Two Koreans were in the lead after the third distance (50m): KI and JUNG with 1035 and 1015, respectively. The archer from D.P.R. Korea KWON scored the 30th best score of the distance and slipped down from 2nd to 5th position with 1003 points. With 1007 FANG Yuting (CHN) was 3rd. With only one distance to go (30m), another Chinese shooter was in 8th position. It is worth reminding that the top 8 archers are exempt from shooting the first two elimination rounds.   No changes on top of the ranking at the end of qualification with KI (1389), JUNG (1361) and FANG (1358) in the first three places. The only non-Asian athlete among the top 9 was Natalia VALEEVA (ITA), 6th with 1353 points. XU Jing (CHN) and Deepika KUMARI (IND) both finished qualification with 1343 points each at 8th and 9th positions. A shoot-off arrow was needed to decide who would finish 8th and would not shoot first two rounds on Thursday. The Chinese lady released her arrow first, scoring an X10. Just a few seconds later, not impressed by her contender's shot, the Indian scored an X10 as well. The two arrows were too close to call, but after measurement by the Judge, XU won the shoot-off, her arrow being slightly closer to the centre. The last qualifying place for elimination (104th) was taken by Panumard SUKDEE (THA) with 1247.   In the team event, the favourites from Korea took the lead with 1005 points at 70m. Nine points behind were China and Italy. After two distances the top 3 teams remained the same, with Korea (2020) holding a comfortable lead over China (1998) and Italy (1985). The provisional cut (16th place) was held by Mexico at that time. No changes in the top 3 after three distances. However, Mexico leapt to 15th place and Germany from 19th to 16th. D.P.R. Korea was the big loser of the distance, going down from 14th to 17th. At the end, Korea, China and Italy remained the top 3 teams and Germany (3907) managed to be the 16th nation, 27 points ahead of D.P.R. Korea (3880). The Colombians, whose female team was present at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, were one of the big losers of the day, finishing only21st. Other teams from whom better performances were expected were Spain (20th) and Mongolia (22nd), among others.   Compound Men The compound division shoots a 50m Round for qualification: 72 arrows at 50 metres. The athletes shoot at a target face with 6 rings (score 5-10), which is only 42cm wide. They have 4 minutes to shoot 6 arrows.   At the half-way mark in the qualification round (36 arrows), the individual and team defending world champion Reo WILDE (USA) led the ranking with 358 points. Just behind him were his two teammates Jesse BROADWATER (357) and Braden GELLENTHIEN (355) for an all-American top 3! Another North American, Simon ROUSSEAU (CAN), was in 4th place. Sergio PAGNI (ITA), double World Cup Final winner (2009 and 2010), was 7th. The Canadian and the Italian had the same provisional score as two other archers: CHOI Yong Hee (KOR/5th) and Duncan BUSBY (GBR/6th). At 8th place was Angel RAMIREZ from Mexico (353).   After amazing shooting, WILDE set a new world record for the Compound Round with 714 out of a possible 720! He improved his own record (711) set at World Cup Stage 1 back in May by three points. His teammate, BROADWATER, finished 2nd (710), while GELLENTHIEN lost one rank to end at 4th place (706). Thanks to the second best score in the second half of qualification, Martin DAMSBO (NED) leapt up from 18th to 3rd place (707). Christopher PERKINS (CAN) completed the top 5 with the same score as GELLENTHIEN. On Tuesday afternoon, after the recurve men's qualification, there will be a shoot-off between four archers to decide which three will enter the top 8, meaning they will be exempt from the first two elimination rounds: Pierre Julien DELOCHE (FRA), PAGNI, Slavko TURSIC (SLO), and Dominique GENET (FRA); the four of them scored 705 points each. There will be another interesting shoot-off to decide on the last qualified competitors: Miroslav BOJCUN (SVK), Borislav KRSTIC (SRB), Gilles SEYWERT (LUX), Njaal AAMAAS (NOR), and Filip REITMEIER (CZE), five archers for two places! A particularity about AAMAAS; he is taking part in these championships in both the recurve and compound division. Rare enough to be noted!   While the compound teams will not contest for Olympic qualification, they will certainly fight against the four-time defender at the world championships: the USA. Without surprise, Team USA was way ahead with 1070 points after the first half. Their Canadian neighbours ranked 2nd (1059) after 118 arrows. Denmark was provisionally at 3rd place (1051), while the cut for elimination (16th) was reserved for Brazil (1039).   Led by Reo WILDE, who set an individual world record, Team USA also broke the team record in this round with a total of 2130 points. They blew away their own mark set at World Cup Stage 2 in Croatia in May by 17 points! Canada and Denmark remained at 2nd and 3rd place, with 2113 and 2103, respectively. Spain qualified last at 16th position with 2075, just two points better than Brazil (2073).   Compound Women On the women's side Jamie VAN NATTA had a 3-point lead at the half-way mark with 350, over three ladies scoring 347: Camille BOUFFARD-DEMERS (CAN), defending champion Albina LOGINOVA (RUS) and Ivana BUDEN (CRO). Then, two archers followed with 346 at 5th and 6th places, Inge VAN CASPEL (NED) and Parsamehr MAHTAB (IRI), and two other competitors with 345 at 7th and 8th places, SEO Jung Hee (KOR) and Jennifer Dy CHAN (PHI).   While VAN NATTA managed to hold the top qualifying place (700 points), LOGINOVA jumped up to 2nd place (693). BOUFFARD-DEMERS finished 3rd, with the same score (692) as Linda OCHOA (MEX) who leaped from 23rd to 4th place and SEOK Ji Hyun (KOR) who shot the highest score in the second half and came from 28th to 5th. In the top 8 were also the two Americans Erika ANSCHUTZ and Christie COLIN, and the Iranian MAHTAB, all with 691 points. These eight archers will not have to shoot the first two elimination rounds and will go directly to the 1/16 matches.   In this category, the USA has not been as dominant as on the men's side in the team events, winning two world titles. In the last few years the main rivalry has been between the Americans and the Russians, the latter earning the world title in Ulsan 2009. However, at the half of qualification in Turin the reigning champions were 3rd (1028 points), behind USA (1037), 1st and Iran (1032), 2nd. Russia shared the same score with Italy, 4th. These teams were closely followed by Venezuela (1027), Korea (1027), the Netherlands (1026), and Canada (1025) in the top 8. The last qualifying place was for Spain (1004), 16th.   While USA (2082) maintained the lead in the team event, Korea (2064) leapt from 6th to 2nd place. Iran (2059) finished 3rd ahead of Russia (2054), 4th. The Netherlands and Italy (2037 each) went to a shoot-off to decide for 7th place, with the Dutch team winning it. Finally, Spain (2013) managed to hold the 16th and last qualifying place for the elimination round, by only one point over Australia (2012).   Compound Mixed Team Topping the male and female competition the American pair WILDE/VAN NATTA obviously also led the mixed team qualification half-way through (708 points). Behind them were their neighbours from Canada ROUSSEAU/BOUFFARD-DEMERS (701) at 2nd place. Two teams, the Netherlands and Korea, followed on 699 points. Provisionally four teams, all on 689, were tied at 15th place for the last two qualifying places: Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Colombia.   While the top 2 teams, USA and Canada, remained, the Netherlands slipped down from 3rd to 7th and Korea from 4th to 5th. The second part of the qualification was to the benefit of Iran who leapt up to 3rd place, Mexico to 4th, Denmark to 8th, Sweden to 13th. Colombia finally missed the cut by one point (1376) to the Belgian pair Sam KYRITSOGLOU/Sarah PRIEELS (1377).   More than 600 archers from close to 90 countries shoot for world titles, medals and Olympic berths. Only the recurve division is contested at the Olympic Games, therefore the top 8 recurve teams per gender in Turin will earn three Olympic spots (one for each team member) for London 2012. As host country, Great Britain also earns one team spot automatically. This means that if Great Britain is in the top 8, the 9th team in the competition will also qualify. Moreover, the top 8 individuals (from countries other than the qualified teams) will also earn one berth. This makes 35 places that are non-nominative—places belong to the country. There will be subsequent continental qualifiers until the Olympic Games to reach 64 athletes per gender.   The event is presented as the most important sports event hosted by Turin, former capital of Italy, in the year when the country celebrates the 150th anniversary of its reunion. A sports event that, even in the choice of venues, seems to fit perfectly into the calendar of events dedicated to this historical celebration. The venues for the World Archery Championships are directly connected to the events and personalities of the ItalianRenaissance: the qualifications and first rounds of eliminations take place in the 18th-century hunting residence of Stupinigi, which is one of the Savoy palaces designed by Filippo JUVARRA. The finals matches will be contested in the Piazza Castello, the old parade ground in the heart of the city, which is overlooked by Palazzo Reale, Palazzo Madama, and other symbolic buildings of baroque age.   Recurve Men will shoot qualifications on Tuesday, 5 July 2011.   Ludivine MAITRE WICKI / Didier MIEVILLE World Archery Communication