Thrilling matches crown four new World Cup winners

  Recurve Men In the men's recurve category gold was for Korea. IM Dong-Hyun photo—the reigning world champion from last year and also two-time team Olympic champion (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008)—beat Ukraine's Olympic champion Viktor RUBAN in the gold final. The young and talented Frenchman Romain GIROUILLE took the bronze medal at the expense of another Korean, PARK Kyung-Mo.   In his semi-final match against GIROUILLE, IM trailed all the way to the penultimate arrow. A little breeze had started to blow on the field at the Montbenon Esplanade in Lausanne. It was quite cold, about 6°C, and the archers were trying their best to keep their hands warm. While the Korean scored a perfect 10 at his eleventh shot, his opponent from France released a 6 (!) on the right of the target. The last end had delivered its verdict and it was IM going to shoot for gold in the afternoon.   The second semi-final was a rematch of the Olympic gold medal match between RUBAN and PARK. In Beijing in August, the Ukrainian defeated the Korean 113-112 to become the new Olympic champion. This re-match proved once again that the two athletes are very close to one another, RUBAN again winning by only one point again, 109-108.   In the men’s recurve gold final in Lausanne RUBAN then faced another Korean, the world champion 2007 IM. The two archers shot all arrows but one in the gold (10 and 9 zone). The Korean led the whole match by a few points after his opponent shot a 7 at his second arrow. However, he himself also scored a 7 at his ninth arrow and let RUBAN come back with only three arrows to go. At the end, the Ukrainian could not put enough pressure with his last three arrows scoring 28 points. IM, with an almost perfect 29 points (out of 30), clinched gold 112-110.   The bronze went to the 20 years-old Frenchman GIROUILLE. His match against the second Korean present in Lausanne PARK—two-time team Olympic champions (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008) and silver medallist of Beijing—was decided in a shoot-off after the two were tied at 109 points after twelve arrows. PARK only scored 8 in the tie-break offering the bronze to his opponent. GIROUILLE clinched victory with a 9.   Recurve Women The gold medal was won by Poland's Justyna MOSPINEK photo, who defeated the 2004 individual Olympic champion, two-time team Olympic champion (Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008), individual Olympic silver medallist (Beijing 2008) and several-time world champion, Korea’s PARK Sung-Hyun, in the final. YUN Ok-Hee of Korea beat the Italian Natalia VALEEVA—2007 world champion— to take the bronze.   The first match of the day was the rematch of the world championship gold final last year in Leipzig, where VALEEVA beat 108-106 PARK to become world champion. With two 8s and a 7 in the first end, the Italian had already spoilt her chances. She trailed all the way until the eighth arrow when a 7 by PARK put her back on trail. She was only one point behind (77-78) with three arrows to go. However, she scored her fifth 8 of the match, leaving her opponent from Korea to shoot for gold later on.   The second semi-final featured Korea’s YUN—winner of both Olympic team gold and individual bronze medals in Beijing 2008 and world record holder for the 12-arrow match—shooting against MOSPINEK of Poland. Although the psychological advantage was on YUN’s side—she beat MOSPINEK 115-110 at the World Cup stage in Porec this year—the match stayed very tight from the beginning to the end. Finally, the Pole managed to keep the 1-point advantage she took in the third end to win 111-110.   In the women’s recurve gold medal match MOSPINEK faced the several times Olympic champion PARK. The Korean seemed to have got the hang of the match, leading comfortably, 56-53, at the half-way mark. However, the situation changed all over in the third end with her contender shooting a perfect end of 30 points. For no obvious reason, the experienced Korean shot two 8s in this end and lost the lead with three arrows to go (81-83). MOSPINEK could keep this 2-point advantage and win the World Cup title 109-107.   World record holder for the 12-arrow match, YUN, flew over the bronze final against the reigning world champion VALEEVA. The Korean’s arrows did not leave the gold zone on the target (10 and 9 points) and she clinched an easy victory 113-105.

Compound Men In the men's compound category, the gold medal was won by the reigning world champion Canada's Dietmar TRILLUS photo, who beat the local archer Patrizio HOFER in the final. Patrick COGHLAN of Australia won the bronze. Italy again missed out on a medal with Italy's Sergio PAGNI taking fourth place.

Shooting “at home”, the Swiss HOFER faced COGHLAN of Australia. Although the two athletes seemed close to each other, the crowd’s favourite was more consistent keeping all arrows in the gold. His opponent’s score suffered from two 8s at the third and sixth arrows and COGHLAN conceded defeat 113-114.   The second semi-final proved very tight between PAGNI—winner of two World Cup Stages this season—and the current world champion Dietmar TRILLUS (CAN). Both kept all twelve arrows in the gold and scored the same numbers of 10s and 9s to be tied at 114 at the end of the match. Put to the tie-break test, the 50 years-old Canadian proved superior with another 10 (9 for PAGNI).   HOFER only just failed to win the World Cup title in front of his fans. He was beaten by the world champion TRILLUS in a tie-break. The Canadian won the gold medal 10-9 in the shoot-off after the two archers were tied at 112 points after twelve arrows.   The bronze was also decided in a shoot-off. Showing a great amount of accuracy, PAGNI and COGHLAN both scored 115 out of 120 points. The athlete from Australia clinched victory at his first tie-break arrow with a 10 versus a 9 for Italy’s PAGNI.   Compound Women Jamie VAN NATTA (USA) photo was the sole archer competing in the World Cup Final for the third time in a row. After a fourth place in 2006 and a bronze medal last year, she won gold in the women's compound event. The American beat Great Britain's Nichola SIMPSON in the final. Amandine BOUILLOT of France won the bronze medal, with Croatia’s Ivana BUDEN leaving Lausanne empty handed.   In semi-final, the exceptional 52 years-old from Great Britain SIMPSON annihilated her opponent’s hopes shooting tying her personal best and Masters Women world records of 116 points. With a 5 at her third arrow and a total of 108, BUDEN could only watch and applaud.   In this category, the second semi-final between VAN NATTA and BOUILLOT proved tighter. The two ladies took the lead one from the other several times. After the regular twelve arrows, the score was tied at 108 points. Shooting first in the shoot-off, the American, who holds many world records and started as the favourite in Lausanne, put pressure on her opponent from France with a 10. Tension was too high for BOUILLOT who conceded defeat with a final 8.   The gold medal match between SIMPSON—who broke five Masters world records in 2008—and the favourite VAN NATTA was expected to be tense. After three ends, the Briton SIMPSON came up with a 2-point lead, 86-84. But her opponent from USA finished like a cannonball with three 10s and 114 points. This was too much for SIMPSON who keeled over with an 8 and two 9s (112 points).   The Frenchwoman BOUILLOT took an early lead in the bronze final against BUDEN who started the match with a 7. The Croatian fought hard to recover, but when she came back to one point before the last end (83-84), her opponent directed her efforts and finished off with three 10s. BOUILLOT won the World Cup bronze 114-110.   Exhibition and Initiation Aside from the World Cup competition matches, some exhibition and initiation sessions were organised. The women’s Olympic Champion ZHANG Juan Juan (CHN) and the Paralympic bronze medallist Philippe HORNER (SUI) shot three arrows on two copies of the 200 Swiss francs banknote. Later on, FITA showed an event she considers for official competition in the future: a mixed double match featuring the Olympic champion Viktor RUBAN (UKR) and the Swiss champion and Olympian Nathalie DIELEN versus the team Olympic gold medallist PARK Sung-Hyun (KOR) and Chris MARSH, who still shoots for Switzerland until he starts on his position of competition manager for London 2012.   A beautiful World Cup Final 2008 in Lausanne to conclude the season!   FITA Communication