Bangkok: LIANG, BROWN, DAG and STUBBS will each shoot for two Para world titles

The recurve men’s and women’s wheelchair (W2) and compound wheelchair (W1) divisions found gold medal contenders this morning, after the recurves started at the 1/16 stage and the compounds with their last 16.

This afternoon held quarter- and semi-finals in the compound open and recurve standing competitions.

Recurve women W2
Only six matches took place in the 1/16 round, with the 10 top ranked archers receiving a bye into the 1/8 stage. In the last 16, the seeds started to fall: JO Jang Moon, ranked 5th after qualification, lost 6-2 to her Korean teammate LEE Mi Hyang; the third seeded Ukrainian, Roksolana DZOBA-BALYAN, lost to Jennifer HESS, n°14 from Germany - and China’s 11th-ranked XIAO Yangong beat n°6 Hatice BAYAR (TUR) in straight sets.

Second best after the ranking round, Svetlana BARANTSEVA (RUS) toppled in the quarter-finals - after losing the fifth set of her match against Ukrainian Iryna VOLYNETS, 24-22 - while LEE beat the number four, Elisabetta MIJNO (ITA), 6-2. XIAO had her second straight-set victory in a row, this time against German HESS - to clinch a semi-final spot - but double-Paralympic champion Zahra NEMATI (IRI) had more trouble. She was 0-4 down to Turkish archer Ozlem KALAY before recovering to win 6-4!

NEMATI deserved an easier semi-finals match: and that’s what she got. With a 6-0 win over LEE she booked herself a finals ticket. XIAO lost her first set since the 1/16 stage, but she fought back to take semi-final victory over VOLYNETS, 6-4. LEE bounced back from the loss, while VOLYNETS could not: 7-3 win for the Korean, and the bronze medal. Asian archers NEMATI and XIAO will fight for gold on Thursday.

Recurve men W2
LEE Hong Gu (KOR) and TSENG Lung Hui (TPE) won byes into the 1/8 round of the recurve men’s W2 event. All the top seeded archers joined them - except Turkish archer Ozgür OZEN, who lost to Hasihin SANAWI (MAS), 6-2. SANAWAI wasn’t done! He authored another upset in the 1/8 eliminations, beating France’s Stéphane GILBERT, 6-4. Top seed LEE Hong Gu fell by the same score - to Antonino LISOTTA of Italy.

LISOTTA’s hopes of a podium did not last long. In the quarter-finals, he lost to local Thai archer Hanreuchai NETSIRI in straight sets. Meanwhile, the three top seeded archers left in the last eight all made it through to the semi-finals: Bato TSYDENDORZHIEV (RUS) was too strong for SANAWI, winning 7-1; Paul BROWNE (GBR) won a shoot-off against CHENG Changjie (CHN) - and TSENG overcame Amit DROR (ISR), 6-2.

Host nation Thailand won a second shot at gold in two days. NETSIRI will contest the Para World Champion crown with Paul BROWNE: in the semi-finals the local archer defeated TSYDENDORZHIEV 6-0, while the Brit beat TSENG 6-2. The bronze medal match brought redemption for Paralympic and world bronze medallist TSENG, with victory in straight sets.

Compound men W1
Jeff FABRY (USA) and Jean-Pierre ANTONIOS (FIN) had quarter-finals byes after taking first and second in compound men’s W1 qualification. They both won their last eight match-ups: FABRY, 137-130, over Korean AN Seong-Pyo - the n°9 seed who’d beaten n°8 Uwe HERTER from Germany - and ANTONIOS by 10 points over Fabio ASSOLINI (ITA), 133-123.

In the other two quarter-final matches, Czech archer David DRAHONINSKY eliminated Norbert MURPHY (CAN) by one point, and Great Britain’s John CAVANAGH beat Korea’s KOO Dongsub convincingly, 139-114. Comfortable semi-final victory margins for FABRY - four points over DRAHONINSKY - and ANTONIOS (photo) - seven over CAVANAGH - set up an exciting one-two seed final for tomorrow. The all-European bronze medal match went DRAHONINSKY’s way; he ended it with a 12-point advantage and third on the podium. Final score: 135-123 over CAVANAGH.

Compound women open
The two British favourites in the compound women’s open event, Danielle BROWN - double-Paralympic and world champion - and Mel CLARKE, made it into the last four with comfortable wins over Southern European archers Eleonora SARTI (ITA) and Carmen RUBIO (ESP) respectively. Larysa MIKHNIEVA (UKR) outclassed Germany’s Lucia KUPCZYK, 129-101 - and Burcu DAG (TUR) beat Farzaneh ASGARI (IRI), 138-125.

Success again in the semis for BROWN, who beat MIKHNIEVA by three points - but CLARKE fell to DAG, 142-139. CLARKE took vengeance on MIKNIEVA, and clinched the bronze medal. BROWN and DAG (main photo) will shoot for gold tomorrow, one day before they meet in the mixed team final.

Compound men open
Compound men’s open top seed Alberto SIMONELLI (ITA) lost his first match against John STUBBS (GBR), a tight, 143-142, contest. Paralympic champion Jere FORSBERG (FIN) had better luck, beating Do?an HANCI (TUR) 144-140. Philippe HORNER (FRA) and Gianpaolo CANCELLI (ITA) took the last two semi-final spots, thanks to victories over Andrey CASTRO (BRA) and Richard HENNAHANE (GBR) respectively.

Paralympic champion FORSBERG needed his last arrow to beat CANCELLI, 142-141. He’ll face STUBBS in the final tomorrow, who overcame HORNER, 142-139. The French archer could not catch bronze, either - that went to CANCELLI, 140-139. STUBBS is also shooting for mixed team gold with his partner, individual finalist as well, BROWN.

Recurve women standing
Milena OLSZEWSKA (POL), top-seeded recurve women standing archer, began the afternoon with a straight-set, large-score victory over Irina BATOROVA of Russia. The other three quarter-final matches were closer: Brigitte DUBOC (FRA) won 6-4 over KIM Ran Sook (KOR); Thai team finalist Wasana KHUTHAWISAP beat Lee FORD (USA) - and LIANG Qiurong overcame her Chinese teammate, MA Huan, 7-3.

OLSZEWKSA’s booming start was nowhere to be seen in her match against DUBOC. She lost, 7-3. LIANG had to wait until a shoot-off to send KHUTHAWISAP to join OLSZEWKSA in the bronze medal match. KUTHAWISAP was leading 5-1 at one point, but when the match came down to one arrow, her 9 was no match for LIANG’s 10!

After wasting her semi-final lead, the Thai archer struggled in the bronze. OLSZEWSKA took went ahead early, and held on for a 7-1 win. DUBOC has two days of rest to prepare for her final against LIANG, who will shoot for team gold tomorrow.

Recurve men standing
French archer Alexandre LASVENES (n°2) was shown the exit by Ukraine’s Yuriy KOPIY after a quarter-final shoot-off in the recurve men’s standing event: LASVENES was leading 5 set points to 1, before conceding a 5-5 draw and then defeat. Double-Paralympic champion Timur TUCHINOV (RUS) had no trouble beating LASVENES’ compatriot Armando CABREIRA, 7-1. ZHAO Lixue (CHN) and Vaclav KOSTAL (CZE) completed the last four, after 7-3 victories over Turkish archers Zafer KORKMAZ and Oguzhan POLAT.

TUCHINOV and KOPIY were untouchable in their semi-finals and won in straight sets. The Russian archer beat ZHAO, while KOPIY defeated KOSTAL. Though the first two sets were tight, KOSTAL recovered to take bronze in the last match of the day, 6-0. TUCHINOV and KOPIY will fight for gold on Thursday at 11:10am local time.

Check back for results of the compound individual and team finals tomorrow.

World Archery Communication