17 October 2006 - Germany makes a strong start in Recurve Junior Men at World Championships

Germany makes a strong start in Recurve Junior Men Merida – 17 October 2006   The second qualification day on short distances has seen the German boys and Korean girls prepare the ground for high performances here at the Junior and Cadet Outdoor World Championships.   Junior Recurve In this division, Christian Weiss, Florian Floto and Bastian Neusius from Germany created the surprise in taking the first place of the team event, in front of the always favorite Koreans. They have scored a total of 3774 points, while the Asians could “only” realize 3728. Individually, the first two mentioned Germans are 1st and 2nd before Chen Chin-Yu of Chinese Taipei who is 3rd seed. For the moments Shin Sungwoo, Jang Tea Jun and Jeopung Kywong Su (KOR) are respectively 8th, 13th and 15th.   Their female counterparts, however, have flown over their category: the three “Kims” (Kim Soyun, Kim Sugyung and Kim Hyewon) finished the qualification round with more than 100 points ahead of their Russian dauphines: 3851 for Korea and 3747 for Russia ! In the individual event, the Korean girls seeded 1, 2 and 6. The Italian Elena Tonetta - who was first after yesterday’s sessions at the two longest distances – has regressed to the fourth rank and is not happy today with her shooting, but stays confident for what remains of the competition: “I am not shooting as good as usual, approximately 1280 points, while I usually shoot 1300. But the important part comes as of tomorrow”, she said at the end of the qualification rounds.   Cadet Compound This division is no doubt one of the closest ever! The first two ranked male archers have achieved the very same total score (1331 points) after 144 arrows at four different distances. However, it is finally the Australian Guy Phillips who is 1st seeded before the Swiss Kevin Burri after he shot more 10’s. Third in this category is another “Aussie” – Brendan Wallace, while fourth is Paris Goico De Lara from the Dominican Republic, an archer who is attending this World Championships thanks to VIVA AMERICA, a scholarship jointly supported by the Justice for Athletes foundation and FITA.   On the female part in this division, yesterday’s provisional ranking has suffered no changes with Malin Johansson (SWE), Anastasia Anastasio (ITA) and Kendal Nicely (USA) taking the first three places in the same order. With Elissa Falconer and Amber Christensen following at 4th and 5th rank, the American Cadet Compound Women team has been the only one breaking the 4000-point barrier in the qualification event in Merida (total score: 4004).   The complete qualification results in pdf format are available on the following links: Individual / Team    At 8.30 (Mexican time) on Wednesday, all the Juniors will be ready on the field at 70 meters for the start of the elimination rounds shot in head-to-head matches of 12 arrows. In the afternoon, the cadets will imitate them but on targets set at 60m.   The team competition for all categories will take place on Thursday all the way from elimination to the gold finals!   Ludivine Maitre Wicki FITA Communication