Eliminations Day!

Eliminations Day Antalya – 5 June 2009   Today was one of the biggest day ever at a World Cup stage. The eliminations took place in recurve, compound, individuals and teams! At the end of this intense day, some of the favourites qualified for the individual quarterfinals that will take place on Sunday. But many went down.   Recurve Men The Recurve division started the day with their first match at an early 08h45. The first round (1/32 eliminations) had its usual blockbuster and surprise matches. The blockbuster? Olympic Champion Viktor RUBAN (seeded only No. 58) met the double Olympic Medallist in 1992, Simon TERRY (GBR). RUBAN has still not reached his peak and lost 51-56 after six arrows. Despite a good effort in the second half he was eliminated 106-107. The 2004 Olympic Champion Marco GALLIAZZO (ITA), current leader of the World Cup ranking, also suffered defeat. He was tied with Hugh MAC DONALD (CAN) 53-53 and lost 106-109. The most dangerous archer on earth, Alan WILLS (GBR) defeated the recent Indoor bronze medallist Rafal DOBROWOLSKI (POL) 115-109. “Mr shoot-off”, Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA) and bronze medallist in Porec, lost a tie-break for once against Alexey NIKOLAEV (RUS). The match was tied at 111-111 and then VALLADONT lost 8-10. A relative upset came from the world indoor champion, Yavor HRISTOV (BUL). He is a match-play guy. He defeated the No. 4 Matthew GRAY (AUS). HRISTOV took a good lead in the first half, 56-51 and clinched the match 109-104. The biggest surprise was that by Hiroyuki YOSHINAGA (JPN). He beat the No. 8 seed LEE Chang-Hwan (KOR), 113-109.   In the 1/16 elimination round, MAC DONALD met with the amazing YAMAMOTO (JPN). The last great result of the 47 year old Japanese was here in Antalya, where he ranked 2nd at the World Cup stage in 2006. The Canadian took the lead after the first end, shooting 9-10-9-9-8-9 for 54 points, while the Japanese had 9-8-8-9-9-9 for 52 points. However MAC DONALD only scored a 6 with his eighth arrow (8-6-8-9-10-9)! and that turned the match around. YAMAMOTO scored a solid end of 54 (9-10-9-9-8-9) to clinch the match 106-104! The biggest upset of the second round came from KAPIL (IND). He took out the No. 1 seed IM Dong-Hyun (KOR) 115-111! On other notable surprises, Amedeo TONELLI (ITA) beat Baljinima TYSREMPILOV (RUS) 110-108, Piotr PIATEK (POL) defeated Romain GIROUILLE (FRA) 111-110 and Rhamat SULISTIAWAN (IND) took out the no. 3 seed Rahul BANERJEE (IND) (photo) ! They were tied at 108-108 and SULISTIAWAN won the shoot-off 10-9. HIRSTOV (BUL) continued his winning ways by defeating Crispin DUENAS (CAN) 110-107. Finally, the duel of the two youngsters turned to the advantage of Brady ELLISON (USA). He defeated Juan Rene SERRANO (MEX) 110-108.   In the 1/8 elimination matches and final round for this morning, the Porec World Cup winner, Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) scored a perfect 60 in the first end, finally defeating ELLISON 118 (!)-111. YAMAMOTO’s march was stopped by the young Thomas AUBERT (FRA). The Frenchman shot an impressive first end to take the lead 57-54 and clinched the match 112-110. HRISTOV was stopped by the dangerous KIM Sky (AUS). The Australian won 111-109. Simon TERRY (GBR) beat Piotr PATEK (POL), 116-110, and the last Korean standing, OH Jin-Hyek, beat Jason LYON (CAN), 117-111. TERRY against OH will be the blockbuster in quarterfinal on Sunday morning!   Recurve Women In the 1/32 elimination matches, Laishram DEVI (IND), seeded only No. 56, trailed 51-53 against the 2008 World Cup Final winner, Justyna MOSPINEK (POL) after six arrows. However the Indian caused an upset in the second end and won 103-101! Pia Carmen LIONETTI (ITA), who ranked 2nd in Porec recently, was defeated by Charlotte BURGESS (GBR), 49-53, 102-104. The indoor world champion, Karina WINTER (GER) beat Malgorzata CWIENCZEK (POL). They were tied 53-53 at the half way mark but WINTER won 107-101.   In the second round, the three Korean archers shot scores of 115, 115, and 114! KWAK Ye-Ji defeated Lisa UNRUH (GER) 114-109 (photo). JOO Hyun-Jung beat Rina PUSPITASARI (INA) 115-104 and YUN OK-Hee overcame Anja HITZLER (GER) 115-103. Sayami MATSUSHITA (JPN) defeated Dola BANERJEE 104-102 and all of the other favourites advanced.   In the 1/8 elimination matches, JOO continued with her impressive form. She scored 58 in the first end and followed with a 56 to clinch the match 114-108. YUN was not quite as impressive but was good enough to advance. She scored 9-10-9-9-8-8 and 10-10-9-8-9-10 to clinch the match against Sayami MATSUSHITA (JPN) 110-101. The upset of the round came from Rimil BURIULY (IND). She defeated VALEEVA of (ITA) 108-105! However, all the other favourites (seeded from 1 to 8) advanced to the quarterfinals and will meet on Sunday morning!   Compound Men At 16h45, nearing the end of the day, the individual compound archers came back to the field.   The Lithuanian hero, Vladas SIGAUSKAS (LTU) who reached the bronze medal match in Porec, surely wanted to have another great run in Antalya. He started well with two 10s but followed through with four 9s. His Austrian opponent, Georg DOLLINGER, shot 10-9-10-9-10-9 and led 57-56. SIGAUSKAS came back strongly in the second end with 10-9-X10-10-10-9 for 58 points. DOLLINGER had 10-10-X10-X10-9, but he could not finish the job with an 8 at the end. The score was tied at 114-114. In the shoot-off SIGAUSKAS scored a 9 and DOLLINGER did not miss the opportunity this time with a 10. In the Australian duel between the young Brendan WALLACE and Patrick COGHLAN (AUS), experience prevailed. COGHLAN was consistent with two ends of 56 points (10-9-X10-9-9-9 and 9-9-9-19-10-9). He won 112-107. At the bottom of the draw, Sergio PAGNI was the only favourite to be defeated. He lost against C. L. MAISMAM (IND), 113-111.   Another northern duel took place in the 1/16 elimination round once again with with youth versus experience. Martin DAMSBO (DEN) vs. Morgan LUNDIN (SWE). The Swede is multiple world champion, the Dane still at the beginning of a very promising career. He immediately applied pressure with 10-9-10-10-X10-10 for 59 points! LUNDIN had an average end with 10-9-9-9-10-10 for 57 points. He came back strongly with a 59 himself (10-10-9-10-10-10). However, DAMSBO shot X10-X10-9-9-X10-10 for 58 points and earned a 1-point victory, 117-116! COGHLAN continued his good form with X10-X10-X10-10-9-X10 and X10-10-10-X10-10-9 for a 118-113 victory over DOLLINGER. Two favourites went down in this round. The No. 3 seed Patrizio HOFER (SUI) shot all his arrows well, with one exception, a 5! Too much to overcome and Antonio TOSCO (ITA) took the opportunity to win 114-109. The Salvadorian Jorge JIMENEZ traded ends of 57 and 58 with Herian BOCCALI (ITA). The match was tied at 115-115 and the Italian prevailed 10-9 in the shoot-off.   COGHLAN had a tougher opponent in the 1/8 elimination matches, the world champion Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN). The Canadian started well with 10-X10-X10-10-9-9 for 58 points but the Australian had another 59-point end! He shot slightly less in the second end with 10-9-9-10X10-10, but that was enough to clinch the match 117-115. Martin DAMSBO also continued on his road to success. He beat Antonio TOSCO (ITA), 58-58, 115-114. Rob POLMAN (NED) and Stephen CLIFTON (NZL) were tied at 58-58 and 116-116 and CLIFTON won the tie-break 10-9. Another Dutchman made it through to the quarterfinal. With a perfect 60 and a 59, Peter ELZINGA (NED) could not really be beaten by Kevin TATARYIN (CAN). The Canadian had 115. The most thrilling match of the day was probably the one between Braden GELLENTHIEN (USA) (photo) and Roberval DOS SANTOS (BRA). The Brazilian had the best start with 9-X10-10-10-X10-10 and took the lead 59-58. However he could not quite hold it to the end with X10-10-10-9-9-9 and 57 points. That allowed GELLENTHIEN to tie the match at 116-116. Both archers shot a 9 in the first arrow of the shoot-off. Then both archers shot an X10. The last arrow would be measured “closest to centre”. DOS SANTOS had a solid 10 but GELLENTHIEN hit the bull’s eye to qualify for the quarterfinals! They will take place on Sunday morning.   Compound Women Two French archers were in action in the first round. Although she had a difficult start (52-51 after six arrows), Valerie FABRE prevailed 107-103. The second one, Joanna CHESSE met Anne MITCHELL (NZL) who had quite a fair amount of success with her team this morning. CHESSE led 55-54 but MITCHELL won the match 109-108!   The bronze medallist in Porec, Andrea WEIHE (GER) could not pass the 1/16 elimination. She was eliminated by the local Esra SULUN (TUR), 113-108. Jhano HANSDAH (IND) was eliminated by another German, Ricarda MAYER, 112-110. All the other favourites went through to the next round.   Things got more complicated in the 1/8 elimination round. Linda LAINCHBURY (NZL) kept surfing her wave of success to the defeat the highly favoured Jamie VAN NATTA (USA), 57-55, 115-113. Camilla SOEMOD had a tight match against MAYER, 56-55, 112-111. The winner of the Porec World Cup, Nicky HUNT (GBR) trailed Hanna KAZANTSEVA (RUS) 54-55 but finally prevailed 111-110. Another Russian, Albina LOGINOVA led the surprise of the year, Olga BOSCH, 56-55. However the Venezuelan came back at 113-113. They both had a 9 in the first arrow of the shoot-off. However, LOGINOVA followed with an 8 and that was not enough compared to BOSCH’s 9. The Venezuelan is going to her third quarter-final (or more) at a World Cup stage this year. Will she get further? The answer will become clear on Sunday morning.   Didier MIEVILLE FITA Communication