VALLADONT world champion in his home Country!

Archers shot the individual finals today on Bellevarde face in Val d’Isere at the feet of the famous World Cup downhill ski race.
  The athletes shot on the same four targets as the team finals yesterday, but faced off against their competitors simulataneously. Each athlete had three minutes to shoot three arrows per target. There were 6 rings on each target (with potential of scoring 6 to 1; or 0 if they miss it).   All the targets were on the uphill slope from the shooting position. The first two targets were placed slightly on the left where the archers shot from, while the last two were on the right. The last two targets were the most difficult having more side effect and longer distances than the first two targets.
The targets were positioned up against the slope of the hill. The challenge was to “reduce” the aiming distance, but not too much. Depending on whether the bow was barebow, recurve, compound made each shot different.   Recurve Men   Gold Medal Match: Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA/1) v Jake KAMINSKI (USA/2) A battle between the two-time world team silver medallists in target archery against the Olympic team silver medallist. Representing the future of the sport among others young talent, VALLADONT, is just 23 years old and KAMINSKI 24. KAMINSKI was silver medallist at the Indoor World Championships in early 2012.   VALLADONT started the match well with 5-5-6 and 4-5-6, and KAMINSKI came up short scoring 4-6-4 and 5-4-4. The Frenchman led 30-27!   The score was perfectly equal at the third target, 4-4-5 for both athletes. VALLADONT took a 3-point advantage on the last target and had the support of the loud cheering French crowd!   At the last target, VALLADONT shot a 6! KAMINSKI a 4! 5 for Jean-Charles! 6 for Jake! KAMINSKI shot the last arrow first, scoring 6! Pressure was for the Frenchman! VALLADONT finished with a 4, enough to become the new world champion! The final score 58-56! This was France’s first field world champion in Recurve Men! First French to be crown world champion in Val d’Isère in the history of the famous skiing resort!   Bronze Medal Match: Jon SHALES (GBR/4) v Aurelien RABANET (FR/3) The competitors are at opposite ends of the spectrum. SHALES at 38 years old is a veteran of the sport and has won many medals including the individual silver at field world championships in 2011. RABANET, 25, shot his first attempt for getting an international medal.   For Shales, experience talked on the first taget, scoring a 5-4-6 versus RABANET’s 3-4-5. The British led 15-12, but RABANET did not give up and came back 25-26 after the second target.   RABANET came closer when he shot a 5 to start off the third target. Unfortunately, he followed it up with 2-4. SHALES gave himself some room to maneuver shooting 4-3-6 to lead 39-36.   RABANET lost his last chances when he shot a Miss to start the fourth end. He would have needed a 6. The Frenchman finished with 4-4. SHALES shot a solid 3-4-4 and added one more medal to his collection. Final score 50-44.   Recurve Women   Gold Medal Match: Elena RICHTER (GER/1) v Zoe GOBBELS (BEL/2) RICHTER had a good season which culminated with a team bronze medal at the European Championships and a participation in the London Olympic Games. The 20-year-old was the field youth world champion and placed 6th at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010.   RICHTER was very consistent in this match: 12 points on each target! Her total of 48 points was enough to clinch the world title as GOEBBELS scored 41 points. A well-deserved gold medal considering the season of the German athlete!   Bronze Medal Match: Naomi FOLKARD (GBR/4) v Marina SZENDEY (FRA/3) Naomi FOLKARD is another Olympian who came straight from Great Britain to Val d’Isere. She won the silver at the European Target Archery Championships this year. In the field discipline, she was the silver medallist two years ago and the team world champion yesterday!   SZENDEY, who made an archery exhibition for the movie « Braves » recently, did not start well in the final with 5-3-3. FOLKARD scored 5-5-5 and followed up with 3-5-5. SZENDEY took the opportunity to come backin the game. She scored 5-5-5 and trailed 26-28.   The third target proved to be a defining moment for the match. FOLKARD shot 5-5-4, while SZENDEY had 2-4-2. The British athlete led 42-33 and won her second medal in these championships, 54-44!   Compound Men   Gold Medal Match: Jesse BROADWATER (USA/1) v Slavko TURSIC (SLO/3) Jesse BROADWATER is a top international archer in target compound. He was a team gold and individual silver medallist at both the 2009 World Indoor Championships and the 2011 Turin World Championships. Slavko TURSIC regularly competes on the World Cup circuit, and was 8th at last year’s Turin World Championships.   The match was fierce! Both athletes scored 17 points on the first target. Then BROADWATER scored a perfect 6-6-6 to take a 2-point lead, 35-33. However, the American shot 5-5-5 on the third target, while the Slovenian had 6-5-6. The match was tied at 50-50 going to the last target!   BROADWATER shot a 5*! TURSIC a 4! The American shot a 6! The Slovenian a 5! Jesse scored a 4*! Slavko a 5! The unofficial score was 65-64 for BROADWATER. After the checks from the judges at the target, BROADWATER actually earned a 6-6-5 to win the match 67-64! World champion!   Bronze Medal Match: Sander DOLDERMAN (NED/4) v Dave COUSINS (USA/2) DOLDERMAN, 25, has been well known in the field discipline of archery. He also placed 9th individually at the Vegas Indoor World Championships earlier this year. Dave COUSINS has extensive experience. Since the mid 90s, the 35-year-old won multiple team and individual medals in world championships and in World Cup events. In fact, he has won 8 medals in 8 field world championships including the individual gold in 2002 and 2010. He won the team title in 2006 and yesterday!   The match was close and COUSINS built a small lead over the first three targets, 17-16, 32-31 and 47-45.   COUSINS kept shooting fast and with confidence on the last target! He shot 6-6-4 to clinch a 9th medal at world field championships! DOLDERMAN finished with 4-5-4. COUSINS won 63-58!   Compound Women   Gold Medal Match: Paige PEARCE (USA/1) v Ivana BUDEN (CRO/2) Paige PEARCE, born in 1995, was the 2009 cadet world champion in target archery. Ivana BUDEN, 26, also young talent and has many podiums in field and target archery. Last year she was ranked No. 1 in the discipline.   After her brother Domagoj’s bronze medal this morning, Ivana BUDEN was shooting for gold this afternoon. She was really consistent and strong on the first three targets, shooting 16-16-16. She built a good lead, 48-44, going into the last target.   The young PEARCE shot better on the fourth target (14-13) but BUDEN became world champion! Final score 61-58.   Bronze Medal Match: Ulrika SJOWALL (SWE/4) v Petra GOEBEL (AUT/3) Born the same year, 1971, both archers came to the field with a lot of experience. Ulrike SJOWALL was the 2001 target world champion in Beijing. Afterwards, she turned to the field and became team world champion in 2006. Petra GOEBEL (born FRIEDL) has won many medals at the field championships and at the World Games!   SJOWALL led the first half of the match 31-28. However she did not finish as strong, scoring only 21 points in the second half. GOEBEL was more consistent, shooting ends of 16, 12, 14, 13. She won the bronze medal, 55-52!   Barebow Men   Gold Medal Match: Sebastian JUANOLA CODINA (ESP/1) v Alan EAGLETON (USA/2) EAGLETON won gold yesterday with the U.S. team. This is his first world championship! JUANOLA CODINA is also new to this level of competition. The barebow have slightly shorter distance (5 metres less) which means there are also more «in » the slope. Therefore they must reduce a bit of their aiming distance. The challenge is finding a good position on the ground and to control the shot from a technical point of view, while aiming upwards towards the target.   It was a tight match between these two archers. JUANOLA CODINA took a slight advantage with 5-4-5 and 5-5-5 for 29 points, while EAGLETON had 5-4-4 and 5-5-5 for 28.   JUANOLA CODINA however was not so consistent on the third target with 4-2-2. EAGLETON took advantage of it with 3-4-4 to take the lead, 39-37.   The American finished with 3-2-4. The Spaniard took the opportunity to turn the match around one last time to shoot 3-5-4. JUANOLA CODINA brought a world title to Spain, 49-48!   Bronze Medal Match: Olivier ROY (FRA/4) v Guiseppe SEIMANDI (ITA/3) Olivier ROY became the local hero yesterday when he delivered the best performance of the French team during the bronze medal final, and shot a final 6 to give his country the medal. He is shooting on the French field national team for the first time. Giuseppe SEIMANDI, 25 years old, has been the silver medallist at the last world championships.   Both athletes started off well in the match and SEIMANDI took a 1-point lead, 14-13.   The drama came with the first arrow of the second target. SEIMANDI shot a 6, while ROY shot on the wrong target! It was a 4 but counted as 0. ROY finished with 4-3, while the Italian had 4-4 to take a comfortable lead, 28-20.   ROY got a big round of applause from the fans and finished the match with 4-3-4 and 4-4-3. The experienced SEIMANDI did not let go anything on the last targets. He shot 4-6-4 and 4-6-5 to take home another world medal, 55-42!   Barebow Women   Gold Medal Match: Eleonora STROBBE (ITA/1) v Lisa BJORKLUND (SWE/3) STROBBE, defending world champion and the 2009 World Games winner should have been a big threat to BJORKLUND however she shot superbly! The Swedish athlete started with 3-6-6 and 5-3-5 to take a strong lead 28-21.   STROBBE shot better on the third target with 4-6-3, while BJORKLUND scored 3-4-3. The Italian was back in contention after the round, trailing 34-38.   STROBBE lost her last chance starting with a 3 on the last target. BJORKLUND stayed very solid with 4-5-3 to win the gold medal 50-45!   Bronze Medal Match: Andrea RAIGEL (AUT/4) v Monika JENTGES (GER/2) The experience JENTGES built a good lead after two targets, 13-12, 24-20. However she only scored 1-1-1 on the third target which RAIGEL took advantage of to come back at 27-27.   Both athletes finished well. RAIGEL shot 4-2 and a perfect 6. JENTGES had a 3-5-5. She won a new bronze medal, 59-58, but she was happy as everand she let her fans know!   Special thanks to multiple field world champion Carole FERRIOU and Olympic champion Sebastian FLUTE for their help with these live commentaries.   The athletes loved these world championships. Superb new world champions were crowned! Thank you Val d’Isere!   World Archery Communication