Nerves fray and champions fall as archery eliminations go down to the wire

One arrow shoot-offs and spectacular comebacks highlighted an intense day's shooting as quarterfinal places were decided for the men's and women's recurve W1/W2, and the men's and women's compound classes.   Recurve Men W1/W2 It was a successful day for both Korea and Iran with two athletes apiece still in the men's recurve competition going into the quarterfinals. Korea's JUNG Young Joo and LEE Myeong-Gu and Iran's Roham SHAHABIPOUR and Ebrahim RANJBARKIVAJ, all come inside the top 10 world rankings, so expectations will be high. Great Britain's Paul BROWN and Italy's Oscar De PELLEGRIN also had victories to stay in the competition. No.1 ranked TSENG Lung Hui from Chinees Taipei continued his great form, knocking out Mustafa DEMIR (TUR) 6-2.   Recurve Women W1/W2 Three archers from Turkey are still in contention 18 elimination matches into the women's recurve W1/W2 competition. The odds are in Turkey's favour for semifinal spots, with Ozlen KALAY, Hatice BAYAR and Gizem GIRISMEN all taking to the range. The No.1 from the ranking round, Zahra NEMATI (IRI), was the only competitor to move into the top eight without losing a single set. Markela SIDKOVA (CZE) also had an impressive win over defending champion XIAO Yanhong (CHN) to get her top-eight place.   Compound Men W1/W2 Both John CAVANAGH (GBR) and Osmo KINNUNEN (FIN) easily moved into the quarterfinals. In an all-Italian affair, Gabriele FERRANDI and Fabio AZZOLINI matched each other shot-for-shot and, after five sets, were tied on five points each. The match finally had to be decided with a one-arrow shoot-off, closest to the X being declared the winner. In the end, AZZOLINI's made the quarterfinal.   Compound Men Open John STUBBS (GBR), the defending champion from Beijing 2008, was beaten 6-4 in a close match against Guillermo RODRIGUEZ GONZALEZ (ESP). After his impressive shooting on the ranking round, Matt STUTZMAN (USA) struggled in his match, losing 2-0 to Jiri KLICH (CZE). He made a stunning comeback with a perfect fist of three 10s in the third end. The two were tied 5-5, so another one-arrow shoot-off was required. STUTZMAN's hard work in the preceeding ends paid off when his shot landed closest to the X. STUTZMAN joins his teammate Dugie DENTON (USA) in the quarterfinals, after DENTON beat Canada's Kevin EVANS 6-4. The silver medallist from Beijing, Alberto SIMONELLI (ITA), kept his medal hope alive with a 6-0 win over teammate Giampaolo CANCELLI (ITA). Leos BARTOS (CZE) was also in great form, not losing a set all day.   Compound Women Open The women's compound open was Friday's most closely fought class, with all the matches needing the last set to decide who advanced. Pippa BRITION (GBR) lost  to Maria RUBIO LARRION (ESP) 6-4 before a riotous home crowd. Scores were so close between Karen VAN NEST (CAN) and Miho NAGANO (JAP) that a one-arrow shoot-off was needed. NAGANO shot closest to the centre so went through to the quarterfinals. Sweden's Zandra REPPE, the world No.3, was beaten 6-4 by Olga ARTAKHINOVA from Russia.   Source: PNS Edited by World Archery Communication