Russia and USA on top of team events

Russia and USA on top of team events Las Vegas (USA) – 8 February 2012   The USA reached the four senior team gold finals tomorrow and they won one gold medal in juniors today. Russia will play two finals tomorrow and brought home two gold medals today. Ukraine won gold in Recurve Junior Women.   The teams have three members and shoot 24-arrow matches (4 ends of 6) with cumulative scoring.   The junior teams played until the gold medal this morning. The seniors took to the venue in the afternoon, and the crowd reached near-capacity in the exhibition hall as archers coming in for the beginning of the Vegas Shoot and Indoor Archery World Cup stopped to witness the excitement of the World Archery Indoor Championships.   Recurve Men   To the shouts of a very excited crowd, the USA concluded their day with a win. ELLISON/KAMINSKI/WUNDERLE began in the quarterfinals with a 233-229 victory against Turkey. The Turkish fought hard against the No. 1 seed as one can see on the scoring evolution per end: 59-58, 117-117, 174-171, 233-229. The USA were then evenly matched in their semifinal match against Mexico, but still pulled off a win, 236-231 to punch their ticket to the gold medal final, in which they will meet the Russian team. Russia beat Japan 228-226 and Ukraine 227-219 today. The Ukrainians and the Mexicans will shoot for bronze.   Recurve Women   Japan was the surprise of the day! Seeded No. 4 they clinched a come from behind victory against the No. 5 seed Ukraine 55-57, 110-112, 169-169, 226-224. Then the Japanese ousted the No. 1 Russia, again with a come from behind victory! The score: 57-56, 111-112, 170-171, 228-226 for Japan!   The USA opened with a 232-224 win in the quarterfinals versus the team from Turkey, just three points shy of the world record. The recurvers then faced a tough Italian team (current outdoor world champion) in the semifinals. The match was extremely tight and finished on a tied score: 55-58, 112-112, 168-167, 225-225. Each archer had to shoot one extra arrow. Italy scored 8-10-9, while the USA had 10-9-10 to prevail 27-29!   Recurve Junior Men   Russia and Ukraine shared the gold and silver medals in the youth recurve division. On the junior men’s side, the Russians edged the Ukrainians 59-58, 117-116, 177-174, 234-232. Ukraine previously broke the world record with 236 points in the semifinal against Mexico!   On the local side, the USA first faced a tough Netherlands team in the quarterfinals. After a 230-227 win, the US squad advanced to face Russia in the semifinals, tying the match but suffering a crushing loss in the tiebreaker by one point. Shrugging off the defeat, the team was able to refocus enough to gain traction in the bronze medal matchup versus Mexico, winning the bronze medal 226-224 (despite a “miss” with the last arrow due to time pressure).   Recurve Junior Women   This time Ukraine ultimately won gold, with Russia taking the silver (58-57, 116-114, 176-169, 234-227). The USA recurve junior women's team opened their day with a tough semifinals meeting against the Ukrainian team. Losing the match by a significant margin (228-201), the Americans regrouped before their bronze medal match against Canada. After tying the first end and being in the red for the second, the US team came from behind to win the bronze medal, 217-211 (score evolution 52-52, 104-106, 159-159, 217-211), with defeaning cheers echoing through the hall.   Compound Men   Seeded No. 5, Canada was very close to the No. 4 seed Italy in qualifications. Their heads-up in quarterfinals was jus the same: very, very close. The score: 58-59, 116-117, 174-174, 232-232. In the shoot-off, all the archers scored a 10! 30-30! One Canadian arrow was the closest to centre to give the victory to the Canadians. Then the Canadians, with two outdoor world champions in the team, gave a tough match to the favourites Americans. The teams were tied at 117-117 halfway through. Then the USA took a 2-point lead thanks to a perfect third end, 177-175. They did not let go in the fourth to prevail 236-234.   France absolutely wanted to meet the USA in the final. That mission was accomplished with three solid victories: 233-225 against Ireland, 236-232 versus Finland and 229-227 over Great Britain (57-56, 115-112, 172-169, 229-227).   Compound Women   The USA met the always dangerous team of Italy in the semifinals. Just three points off their own world record, the US took the match with a 233-228 win and will face their arch-rival, Russia, in the gold medal final. Italy and Great Britain will contest the bronze medal match.    Compound Junior Men   The American compound junior men's team opened with a 233 in their semifinal meeting with the Italian team, winning their berth in the gold medal match by five points. Going on to face the Mexican team, the Americans found success once again, shooting enough tens to hit a 232 to Mexico's 228, wining the first gold medal of the event for the United States (score evolution: 57-57, 115-115, 173-171, 232-228).   Seeded No 2, South Africa lost their semifinal versus Mexico, but got consolation with the bronze over Italy at the end of a very close match: 56-57, 114-112, 173-170, 228-227.   Compound Junior Women   The US women's team started out strong in their match versus Mexico and never looked back. Posting a strong 231 to their opponent's 206, the US team advanced to a tough gold medal match versus second-seeded Russia. This time the Russians got the edge: 58-57, 115-113, 173-168, 231-224.   The bronze medal went to Croatia over Mexico.   Tomorrow Thursday, the finals will be live on www.archery.tv as of 10h00, local time, 18h00 GMT time. The USA will play in 11 of the matches, while Russia will make six appearances. Tennis superstar Andre AGASSI will be present at the finals to present watches to the new world champions from World Archery sponsor Longines.    USA Archery / World Archery Communication