First World Cup victory for New Zealand!

First World Cup victory for New Zealand! Antalya – 6 June 2009   The team finals of Stage 3 of the World Cup took place today on the beautiful beaches of Antalya. New Zealand won in Compound Women and Netherlands was impressive in the men’s category. Korea won two recurve categories!   The recurve teams started the finals this afternoon followed by the compound. Here are our live commentaries.   Recurve Men   Gold Medal – Korea (KOR) vs India (IND) They are the No. 1 and 2 in the world, they are the No. 1 and 2 seed in the competition. It was a clash of the titans that may take place many times in the future.   The level went up a notch with these two giant teams. Korea opened with 10-10-10 and had an early lead 57-56. They continued with another perfect 10-10-10 while India was not so perfect. The score was 115-112 at the half.   The rare times when the team got out of the yellow, the teams shot a bit on the right side.   India shot another 7 on the right during a gust of wind in the third end; Korea had an 8 on the right. A tail wind coming a bit from right to left influenced the archer to counter-aim to the right, sometimes too much. The Koreans seemed to trust their shots more and stay in the middle hitting the 10 consistently. They had a 5-point lead after 18 arrows, 171-166.   A couple more 7s on the right by both teams did not change the equation. India finished with a strong X10-9-X10, but Korea replied with 10-10-9 to clinch the gold 225-220!   Today we had the top archer Crispin DUENAS (CAN) joining us for the commentary. His opinion on the match: India looked relaxed. They managed to keep their form most of the time. However the Koreans looked confident. I think their confidence in their shots give them an advantage in difficult conditions.   Bronze Medal – Australia (AUS) vs Malaysia (MAS) Due to their qualification scores this week, Malaysia were only the No. 11 seed in the competition; however they are the No. 4 in the world ranking. Australia is the No. 5 seed and No. 15 in the world. They are trained by the 2000 Olympic Champion Simon Fairweather.   Malaysia had an impressive start despite the windy condition. They did not miss the yellow in the first half with six 10s (one X10) and six 9s!! Australia was not as stable going out of the yellow in many occasions. They were trailing 105-114!   Australia pulled it up in the third end with a 9-10-9-8-8 and 9 with only one second left in the clock!   Malaysia got a bit out of their rhythm and shot a couple of high arrows (a 6 at 11 o’clock and a 7 a 12 o’clock) but still maintained a 7-point lead, 165-158.   Malaysia’s troubles continued at the beginning of the last end with an 8-9-7. They had only a 2-point advantage left! Then KIM shot an X10 for Australia and his teammates finished the match 7 and 9.   Malaysia concluded with an 8, a 10 and finally a 9 to salvage their victory, 216-213 !   The opinion of DUENAS: Malaysia had a truly impressive start but then they maybe got too comfortable with the lead and arrows started going out of the gold. Usually that shows your form is not keeping up with your usual standard. Australia must have been nervous at the beginning. It was too little too late at the end.   Recurve Women   Gold Medal – Korea (KOR) vs Russia (RUS) No. 1 in the world Korea was the huge favourites against the young Russians (No. 9 in the world).   Although their leading shooter, the young STEPANOVA scored 10-9-X10-X10, Russia gave away a 5, a 6 and two 7s in their first twelve arrows. Russia spread the arrows a lot to the left and right.   Korea was not perfect either with a 5 and a 7 on the right side of the target. Archers were probably caught by a gust of wind. The rest of the arrows were all solid shots in the yellow. Korea built a 2-point advantage at the half, 102-100.   It was still anybody’s game and thanks to another 9 and X10 of STEPANOVA in the third end Russia kept the gap at 155-153!   To give it all in the last end, Russia changed the order of shooting and had KHARKHANOVA-STEPANOVA-ERDYNIYEVA on the line. They closed the gap to a 1-point lead with three arrows left, 180-179!   Unfortunately Russia finished the match with 9-9-8. JOO-KWAK and YUN did not miss the opportunity with a 9-9-10 to clinch the gold with the score of 209-205!   The opinion of DUENAS: The difference with the previous match (the recurve women bronze) is that these two teams hold on to their usual timing. They did not hold the arrows longer because of the wind. It’s an advantage to keep regular form despite the wind.   Bronze Medal – Japan (JAP) vs India (IND) India was 4th at the last World Cup stage in Porec (CRO) and is the No. 8 in the world. Japan is No. 11.   The recurve women’s teams started this afternoon’s session live on Turkish television. Both teams exchanged a few 9s and 8s, all in the upper right of the target. They needed to adapt from the warm-up field and also a strong wind here on the beach of Antalya.   Japan started the second end with a 6, again high on target, and, moreover got a yellow card because the second shooter was too fast on the line. Thankfully for them the two other archers shot 10 and 9.   Japan reached the 100 mark halfway through but that is not a high score. The archers generally shot too thigh. The Indians put together a 9-10-10 to conclude the second end and earned themselves a 3-point lead.   Japan definitely had a hard time on the field shooting all over the clock on the target (high, low, left, right), including another six. India managed to stay in yellow most of the time and built a 7-point lead.   Japan got a better group near the end but that was not enough to catch India. The Indians clinched the match with one arrow to go and shot another 10 to conclude the match 211-201.   Today we have the top archer Crispin DUENAS (CAN) joining us for the commentary. His opinion on the match: The conditions were tough. A lot of high arrows had to be expected because of the wind conditions. Japan had a couple bad arrows and India managed to keep it more in the yellow with the exception of a few 7s.   Compound Men   Gold Medal – Sweden (SWE) vs Netherlands (NED) Sweden was the winner of the last World Cup in Porec and are the No. 3 in the World Ranking, while Netherlands is No. 6 and has the new world record man for a FITA Round Peter ELZINGA.   The “Orange” had some juice at the beginning: 9-X10-X10-X10-10-10-10-X10-10. That was eight 10s in a row!   At the same time LUNDIN was shooting last for Sweden and had three 9s at 3 o’clock (right of target) before he probably moved his sight to reach the 10 ring on his fourth arrow.   Altogether the score was 116 - 113 in favour Netherlands halfway through.   Sweden did not help their cause as they shot 8-10 and another 8 at 3 o’clock for LUNDIN. Netherland also shot an 8 at 3 o’clock but followed through with two 10s to start the third end. They kept going with 9-9-10 and lead 172-166.   ELZINGA, VAN ZUTPHEN and POLMAN, shooting in this order, had another three 10s and were the only team to break the 200 points barrier with three arrows to go. They led 202-196 and finally clinched gold with 229 – 223!!   The opinion of DUENAS: The compound bow is more powerful, faster and it should help them a bit with the wind. The feeling is also way different than a recurve bow because the archer feels the weight more on the front arm.   Netherlands shot their arrows first and started the match so well that it must have caused some tension in the Swedish team. The Swedes actually had a great group but too much on the right side of the target. The Dutch have also the team world record and they showed why today. They only had one arrow out of the gold. That’s impressive!   Bronze Medal – Italy (ITA) vs Canada (CAN) Italy was the top seed in this competition. Canada has world champion Dietmar TRILLUS in the team.   PAGNI was both the leading and the last shooter for Italy during an end, meaning Italy was changing the rotation of their three archers all the time. The world champion TRILLUS was shooting in second position for Canada and the fast shooter TATARYN was last.   The wind was not as gusty anymore and although it was present (tail wind from left to right), it should be less of a factor for the compound men archers.   Canada had the better start with 9-8-X10-9-9-10 and build a 5-point lead after the first end, 55-50.   They kept the same gap at the halfway mark, 112-107.   PAGNI got an X10 with one second left on the clock to conclude the third end. That allowed Italy go come back within three points of Canada. CAMERON-TRILLUS-TATARYN seemed a bit tense on their last three arrows and they managed three 9s to lead 166-163.   Italy started the last end strongly with X10-9-X10 to make up one more point–Canada had 9-10-9.   Italy put again a 9-10 and another 10 for PAGNI with their last three arrows. However, the Canadians responded with 10-10-10 to clinch the bronze 224-221!   The opinion of DUENAS: One could see that two archers were really good in this match. PAGNI only dropped two points while TATARYN lost only three. At the end, Canada came through under the pressure when the Italians were trying to come back. They kept a good group in the gold pretty much the whole time and they concluded with three solid 10s.   Compound Women   Gold Medal – New Zealand (NZL) vs Greece (GRE) This was a surprise to have these two teams competing for gold.   Both teams were pretty close to one another until they finished the second end, when Greece shot a 6, high on the right. New Zealand had then a 4-point lead 103-99.   Both teams then adapted better to the special conditions of this final field on the beaches of Antalya. Greece put together a 9-9-X10-8-10-9, while New Zealand had X10-X10-9-8-10-9 to increase their lead 159-154.   LAINCHBURY shot the last arrow for New Zealand hoping she would be back on this field with the same success tomorrow for the individual finals. New Zealand won gold 211-204!   The opinion of DUENAS: Both teams fought well. They probably fought not only the wind but also their nerves, as I never saw them on a World Cup field of play for finals before today. They probably earned a great deal of experience and the fact that they reached the final here should be a huge boost of confidence for them in the future!   Bronze Medal – Italy (ITA) vs Australia (AUS) Italy is ranked 4th in the world and is used to the final fields on the World Cup stakes. Australia has less experience in the World Cup.   Italy did not start the match well at all with 8-5-9. They did not find much of their rhythm until halfway through the match, scoring only 100 points.   Australia was doing better and consistently hit the yellow. They built an 8-point lead at the half, 108-100.   The lead increased to 137-127 after 15 arrows, but suddenly the Australian team collapsed with a 7-8 and 6 just on the buzzer of the clock. They had now only a 2-point lead, 158-156 with six arrows to go.   The world champion SALVI led the Italians with a 10 to start the last end, CHITI had an 8 and ANASTASIO had a 10. Australia had 9-9-10 to keep their lead.   Italy had 10-8-8 to conclude the match. Australia had 8-10 and it needed a 7 to clinch the bronze. A 7 it was and they won the bronze 211-210!!   The opinion of DUENAS: Australia suffered in the third end and the 6 to conclude this end could actually have been worse because of the time pressure. They kept their composure to win the match on the fourth end.   Didier MIEVILLE FITA Communication
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