First round of eliminations in all categories

This afternoon the first round of elimination matches took place on the Kallang Archery Field in Singapore! First the junior women, the junior men and finally the new mixed teams/mixed countries event!   The mixed team event in Singapore is one of the innovations proposed by world archery to support the educational and cultural values of these first Youth Olympic Games. Not only the team were mixed in gender, but there were also mixed in countries. As a matter of fact, the 1st ranked junior men in qualifications formed a mixed team with the 31st ranked junior women; the 2nd will be paired with the 30th, and so on. No matter of which country they come from! To note all archery athletes in Singapore are born between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 1993 (17-18 years old).   All the matches were played on the best of 5 sets of 3 arrows. Each set won gives 2 set points; each set tied awards 1 set point. The winners of the first round will have the joy to play tomorrow their 1/8 elimination matches on the final field on a true Olympic manner. Last but not least, it stopped raining for this afternoon session.   Recurve Junior Men The No. 1 seeded athlete (first in qualifications) Rick van den OEVER (NED) took on Jafet FARJAT (MEX) in the first round. Van den OEVER was consistent. He shot 9-9-9 in the first set, while FARJAT had 9-6-9. The Dutch led 2-0 and then achieved 8-10-10 compared to 6-8-10 for his Mexican opponent; 4-0. FARJAT came back at 4-2 in the third set with 10-8-9, while van den OEVER had 9-9-8. However, the Mexican continued with 8-9-6 and the Dutch had 9-8-8 to conclude the match 6-2. The higher placed archer (No. 58) in the current elite world ranking list, Emdabul HAQUE MILON Md. from Bangladesh, proved his status by beating Timon PARK from Canada in the first round. The Canadian gave it a good fight and tied the first set (9-9-9 vs 10-9-8). Then PARK shot 9-8-8, while HAQUE MILON raised the bar at 9-9-10 to take a 3-1 lead. The third set was tied (10-9-9 vs 9-9-10) and HAQUE MILON led 4-2. He concluded the match with 9-9-9, while PARK had 9-8-7. Final score 6-2. The match between Yagiz YILMAZ (TUR) and Lorenzo PIANESI (ITA) was much tighter! They tied the first set with 28 points each. YILMAZ took the second set (10-8-10 vs 9-10-7). PIANESI won the third and the fourth set (9-9-9 vs 8-9-9 and 10-9-10 vs 9-9-9)! However, YILMAZ claimed the fifth set with 10-9-8 vs 10-8-8. Score was tied at 5-5. A 1-arrow only (!) tie-break had to be played. YILMAZ won it 10-7! Atanu DAS (IND) and Joni HAUTAMAKI (FIN) had also a roller-coaster match! They ended regulation tied at 5-5 (24-22, 27-27, 24-26, 29-24, 26-27). HAUTAMAKI won the shoot-off 9-8 to upset the No. 5 seed DAS! The match Anton KAROUKIN vs Ibrahim SABRY (EGY) was even closer! The archers were tied at 5-5 (27-25, 29-29, 27-28, 27-24, 25-26). In the shoot-off both archers shot 10! However, SABRY was the closest to the centre and advanced to next round!    Recurve Junior Women There was an exciting match between the local hero, Singaporean athlete Vanessa LOH—placed well at No. 102 in the elite world ranking list—and Turkish revelation of the season Begunhan UNSAL—ranked No. 21 in the elite world ranking list. UNSAL won the first two sets (23-19, 22-21). However LOH fought back hard and took the next two sets (26-25, 27-25). In the last set LOH shot 10-8-8, while UNSAL had 9-8-9. The set was tied at 26-26 and therefore the match ended at 5-5 in regulation. A one-arrow only tie-break would decide the match! LOH shot an 8, while UNSAL had a perfect 10 to advance to next round. In the match Gloria FILIPPI (ITA) against Alice INGLEY (AUS), the Australian took the first set and led 2-0. The Italian came back strong and won the next two sets to take the advantage, 4-2. In the fourth set, FILIPPI could not clinch the match, shooting 10-8-7. INGLEY had 10-9-9 to tie it at 4-4. In the last set the Italian did 8-8-9, while the Australian shot 9-10-9 to win 6-4. Brina BOZIC (SLO) had a good start against Jia SONG (CHN) to take the lead 2-0 (26-25). SONG won the next two sets to lead 4-2 (26-22, 27-26). She then shot 9-8-8 in the fourth set. However her opponent tied it at 4-4 with a nice group 9-9-9. The Slovenian started the final set with another 9. Then the Chinese turned the heat on and shot 9-9-9 herself. BOZIC finished with 6-7 and let the victory go to SONG.   Mixed Team In the 1/16 elimination rounds, two compatriots fought against each other in the match between Miriam ALARCON (ESP)/Md. Emdad HAQUE MILON (BAN) and Beauty RAY (BAN)/Mark NESBITT (GBR). The former team shot a 6 in the first arrow that cost them the first set (34-35). Another bad opening arrow (5) in the second set meant another set went by and they trailed 0-4. But the pair managed a come-back in the third set (37-36) to trail 2-4. In the fourth set, it was the turn of RAY/NESBITT to shoot a 5. The teams tied at 4-4. In the very last set, the first three arrows were 8-7-10 on both sides. It all came down to the last arrow. ALACORN/HAQUE MILON shot a 9 (against 8 to their opponents) to win the set and the match.   Maud CUSTERS (NED)/Vasuk SHAHNAZARYAN (ARM) took the first set 37-33 and the second 35-33 to lead Miranda LEEK (USA)/Atanu DAS (IND) 4-0. The USA/IND pair came back with 39 in the third set to recovered 2 point and trail 2-4. Their opponents started the fourth set with an 8 that cost them the 2 set points. The score was tied at 4-4. CUSTERS/SHAHNAZARYAN then managed an almost perfect 39 to win 2 points and take the match.   The UKR/USA pair (Lidiia SICHENIKOVA/ZHU Jia Hao) started with 39-38 to lead 2-0. Both teams were less consistent in the second set; the SLO/AUS pair consisting of Brina BOZIC/Benjamin NOTT won 35-33 to tie at 2-2. Both teams had a bad start in the third set but the UKR/USA pair was a little bit better (36-34) to lead 4-2. The fourth set was tied, moving the score to 3-5. The SLO/AUS tema took the fifth set 34-33 to tie again (5-5). In the shoot-off, the Slovenian girl shot a 9 and the Australian boy 8. The scores of the American boy and the Ukrainian girl were two 8s, and so the match went to the SLO/AUS pair.   Tatiana SEGINA (RUS)/Maciej JAWORSKI (POL) had the best start against Begunhan Elif UNSAL (TUR) and Abdud DAYYAN (SIN) despite being seeded 22. The RUS/POL pair shot 38-36 to lead 2-0. The TUR/SIN team came back to tie 2-2. The third set was very tight: 33-33, 3-3. In the fourth set RUS/POL shot all their arrows in the gold ring, but it was not enough to win the set. Both teams tied again at 4-4. The scores of the fifth set were not brilliant and a 9 was enough for the TUR/SIN team to win the 2 set points and the match.   The leading girl KWAK Ye Ji (KOR) paired with Aung GYI (MYA) lost her match 0-6. Also eliminated were Mariana AVITIA (MEX) and Joni HAUTAMAKI (FIN), who lost 0-6 to Mai OKUBO(JPN)/KU Yuan-Hsiang. The men’s leader Rick van den OEVER (NED) coupled with Aya KAMEL (EGY) trailed 0-4, 2-4, 3-5 but came back at 5-5 in their match against Erwina SAFITRI (INA)/Vitaliy KOMONYUK (UKR). In the shoot-off KAMEL/OEVER outscored their opponents 19-17 to advance to the 1/8 elimination round.
  The mixed team will conclude tomorrow, while the individuals will shoot on Friday and Saturday.   Didier MIEVILLE / Vanahé ANTILLE World Archery Communication