Thailand will shoot for gold for the first time at the Para World Championships

Recurve men team
Russia and France were seeded n°1 and n°2 respectively after qualifications. There was one notable surprise in the 1/8 round with Great Britain’s thrashing win over Chinese Taipei 199-172. The team consisting of Paul BROWNE, Kenny ALLEN and Philip BOTTOMLEY continued their winning ways after upsetting seeded n°3 China by one point: 204-203.

Team GB’s journey was stopped in semi-finals against French who deprived GB a place to fight for gold: Stéphane GILBERT, Armando CABREIRA and Alexandre LASVENES were too strong and scored a higher number of points of the session with a clear victory 213-203. The final will feature current Russian Paralympic and world champions Mikhail OYUN, Oleg SHESTAKOV and Timur TUCHINOV who overcame Turkey in the quarter-finals, and then Korea in semi-finals with a two-point win 200-198. KIM Ji Nyun, LEE Hong Gu and LEE Hak Young will fight for bronze against the British side.

Recurve women team
Eight teams in competition entered the quarter-finals. The performance of the day in Bangkok came with the qualification of, host nation, Thailand, to the final with brilliant victories over Russia in the quarter-finals (172-150) and Korea in the semi-finals (173-169). Priyaphon KAEOCHAEMCHAN, Wasana KHUTHAWISAP and Phannibha SRATHONGMAEW (main photo) will shoot for Thailand’s first ever gold. However, standing in their way for glory will be n°1 seed China who beat Iran and Turkey: LIANG Quirong, MA Huan, and Paralympic silver medallist and world champion XIAO Yanhong will be a tough contender for the Thais.

Recurve mixed team
Higher ranked teams went through the 1/8 round where the largest victory was shot by n°1 Russia; 129-112 against Malaysia. The hierarchy was still respected in the quarter-finals were Iran scored the highest score of the day in the elimination rounds for this category with a victory over Korea 138-120. The remaining three matches were tightly contested meaning the favourite teams had to struggle to make it through with scores lower than in the previous round. Russia, Poland and Ukraine were the victors over Italy, France and China respectively.

The semi-finals brought its bundle of surprises: Russians Svetlana BARANTSEVA and Timur TUCHINOV were prevented reaching the final by their western neighbours Poland with a victory 132-128 for Milena OLSZEWSKA and Piotr SAWICKI. If Iran had shot the same score they had in one of their two previous encounters they would have beaten Ukraine in the other semi-final. Iran, comprising of double Paralympic champion Zahra NEMATI and Roham SHAHABIPOUR lost 129 – 131 to Ukraine’s Roksolana DZOBA-BALYAN and Yuriy KOPIY who progress to the final.

Compound men team
Brazil and Slovakia presented a tight match in the 1/8 round with a shoot-off that went in favour of the European side. Slovaks, Peter KASCAK, Marian MARECAK and Marcel PAVLIK continued their impressive run of form eliminating the n°1 seeds, Korea, in quarter-finals. At this stage of competition, Great Britain (n°5) was stronger than Paralympic champion Jere FORSBERG’s from team Finland (n°4), as were United States (n°6) who beat Turkey (n°3). Italy justified their n°2 seeding with a solid win over the Czechs 218-214.

In the semi-finals, Italy confirmed their status as the highest remaining seeded team in the competition with a clear victory against Americans Jeff FABRY, Jeff SENA and Lance THORNTON 229-216. Matteo BONACINA, Gianpaolo CANCELLI and Alberto SIMONELLI will meet Brits, Richard HENNAHANE, Frank MAGUIRE and John STUBBS in the final after they beat Slovakia in the shoot-off after a tied score of 218 each.

Compound women team
With Russia (photo) and Japan receiving a bye into semi-finals, Turkey-Iran and United States-Ukraine were the only two matches of the quarter-finals: Asian and American sides had no problems to qualify for the last four. Martha CHAVEZ, Arce HESS and Ashlee SHEPPARD secured their spot in the final after a five-point victory against the Japanese, Nako HIRASAWA, Chieko KAMIYA and Miho NAGANO 200-195. In the other semi-final, Russia achieved a double victory, first by shooting the highest score of the day to beat Iran for a place in the final but also achieving a new team world record of 218 points for 24 arrows.

Stepanida ARTAKHINOVA, Marina LYZHNIKOVA and Olga POLEGAEVA will meet the Americans for gold, while Somajeh ABBASPOUR, Farzaneh ASGARI and Seyedehzahra HOSSEINI will shoot for bronze against Japan.

Compound mixed teams
Current Paralympic and defending world champion Danielle BROWN, teaming up with John STUBBS, obtained a bye for the quarter-finals after last Saturday’s qualifications. Two memorable moments happened in the 1/8 round with the elimination of seeded n°5 team, Russia who lost against n°12 Japan, and a new world record of 154 points in a 16 arrows mixed team match, set by Turkey (photo) which eliminated Thailand.

Seeded n°2 Burcu DAG and Erdo?an AYGAN continued with easy victories over Sweden and Italy in the rounds leading up to the final where they will meet British duo BROWN and STUBBS who moved Canada and Japan aside for their shot at gold. Nako HIRASAWA with Kazumasa HATTORI, and Eleonora SARTI with Alberto SIMONELLI will fight for bronze.

Today showcases the individual elimination rounds and the first bronze medals to be awarded.

World Archery Communication