Mixed Team: Spain has a rare shot at gold Wuxi - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 The mixed team competition from eliminations through to semi-finals took place in Wuxi. Most top-seeded qualifiers made it to the final - but the afternoon threw up its fair share of surprises. Recurve Junior Top individual recurve junior qualifiers KIM Joo Wan and SIM Yeji were top scorers in all three rounds as Korea’s mixed team. A 153 beat Brazil in the first round, and 147 was enough to move past both Mexico and n°4 United States - and carve a path into the final. They will defend the gold medal won for Korea by the previous pair. Spain is their surprising final opponent. N°11 seeds Miguel ALVARINO GARCIA and Mirene ETXEBERRIA (main photo) defeated n°6 Turkey, then upset host team and third-ranked China in the quarter-finals with a come-back victory in the last end (144-143). Finally, in the semi-finals against experienced senior competitors Bolot TSYBZHITOV and Kristina TMOFEEVA (RUS), Spain took a 2-point lead with their first four arrows, and held on to it to win (143-141). The bronze medal match will feature the United States and Russia, who knocked out n°5 Ukraine and n°2 France, respectively, in the quarter-finals. Compound Junior The standard of archery was high from the junior compound athletes - and the top two mixed teams from qualifications did not go easy in eliminations. The n°1-seeded United States, after a bye into the quarter-finals, posted 155 to beat France by a large margin. They then repeated the score to plough through India in the semis. Top individual after qualifications, junior man Alex WIFLER - competitive as a compounder for four months - and his partner Kailey JOHNSTON - 2008 cadet world champion - have an opportunity to up the USA’s podium level in this competition. The previous USA team took silver at Legnica 2011. Their opponent in the final will be second-seeded Colombia. World n°3 and senior team world champion Sara LOPEZ, paired with Camilo Andrés CARDONA (photo), had an easy first round against Iran, before a tougher quarter-finals opponent in Great Britain. LOPEZ dropped just one point, and CARDONA just three, in that match. And they needed every one of those 156 points to beat Great Britain’s 155. In the semi-finals, Colombia outscored n°11 Belgium, author of a major upset against n°3 Denmark in the previous round, whose pair was senior team world champion Stephan HANSEN and Sarah Holst SONNICHSEN. The Danes were bronze medallists together two years ago in the cadet category. Belgian archers Baptiste SCARCERIAUX and Saskia MEYNEN DEGRYSE will take consolation in the possibility of winning bronze against Jignas CHITTIBOMMA and Jyothi Surekha VENNA of India. Recurve Cadet The top two teams from qualifications, China and Korea, both won in the first two rounds - and shot excellent scores, above 150 in the quarter-finals - but then faltered in the semis. The host team of WU Jiaxin and top men’s qualifier XU Zhiwei, both 16 years old, started their semi-finals match with 35 points and immediately trailed n°5 Great Britain by three. It would be the same margin when the match finished: Patrick HUSTON and Rebecca MARTIN coasted to victory. Despite only shooting 35 points in the last end, the Brits won 150-147. Meanwhile, Korean pair KIM Dongil and top individual female qualifier JEONG Yuri initially took a two-point lead over n°3 France. A perfect second end from Laura RUGGIERI and Thomas KOENIG inverted the score, and the French double never looked back. With a 151-147 victory, they deprived Korea the chance to defend the cadet mixed team title. Great Britain and France will both shoot for their first gold medal in this event, while China and Korea will fight for bronze. Compound Cadet Croatia is the team to beat. The top-seeded pair, n°1 individual Domagoj BUDEN and woman of the moment Maja ORLIC - who just missed out on bronze at the recent senior World Championships - shot consistently well: 153, 153 then 154 points to win their matches against Hong Kong, Canada and India - and advance to the final. N°2 Russia and n°3 Mexico were dominant on the other side of the brackets. Top individual qualifier Alexandra SAVENKOVA and third-seeded Anton BULAEV scored 153 points to defeat Turkey in the first round, before posting the highest total of the day - 157 - against South Africa. Mexican athletes Cecilio QUEVEDO and Fernanda DEL ROCIO were impressive, too: scoring 152 points in the first round and 154 in the second. They took a two-point lead in the first end of their semi-final against Russia, but then a perfect 40 from Russia reduced the gap. Four more perfect 10s in the final end earned SAVENKOVA and BULAEV a place in the final against Croatia. Mexico will shoot against n°13 India for bronze, who edged out defending-champion United States on the way.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 02:57:10 +0000
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