Friday was teams day in Porec in all categories: men’s and women’s compound in the morning, men’s and women’s recurve in the afternoon.

Teams take on the Field in Porec Porec - 12 May 2006 Friday was teams day in Porec in all categories: men’s and women’s compound in the morning, men’s and women’s recurve in the afternoon. The excitement rose all the way to the finals. It was the first time that the team round was shot in 24 arrows matches at this level of tournament and this rule change gave some dramatic matches.

Compound USA Men's Team
Photo (c) Dean Alberga   In the Compound Women’s and Men’s Team competitions, the reigning World Champions of France and USA showed once more that they are the best.  The runners up in the Women’s division were a surprising Indian Team, which is showing that India is not only the arising star in Recurve but also in Compound. The third place was for the US Team.   In the Compound Men’s Final the USA beat the British Team and third was the Netherlands who defeated Belgium for the Bronze Medal.  The leader of the qualification round Switzerland, was beaten by the Netherlands in the second round.   The Recurve Women’s division was won by the British Team which shows that the British Team will be one of the key contenders in the years to come, London and Beijing Games included. The 2nd place was for Russia and the third place for People’s Republic of China who defeated Poland.

Recurve Women's Podium (RUS - GBR - CHN)
Photo (c) Dean Alberga

 
The Recurve Men’s division was won by the Italian Team led by Olympic Champion Marco Galiazzo and former World Champions Ilario Di Buo and Michele Frangilli.Their opponents were the Chinese Team which shows that they will be the contender for Beijing.
 
Third place was for Russian Federation who defeated the Brazilian Team. A Brazilian archer had already created the surprise for the archery family last year in Madrid when he defeated the first ranked Korean and now they showed that they also have a team that will be the one to beat in the upcoming Panamerican Games in Brazil next year.
 
Tomorrow the final day of the event will be held and will see the individual final of this first World Cup event. In the Compound category, the tow number 1 seeds, Dominique Genet (FRA) for the men and Almendra Ochoa (MEX) want to finish the job. In the recurve category, the competition will bring some exciting matches including Marco Galiazzo, the Athens gold medalist, facing the top Indian Talukdar who defeated the Koreans in the Bangkok Grand Prix last January. Magnus Petersson from Sweden will shoot against the Ukranian Ivashko.
 
In the women’s recurve we will see if the two Italians Lionetti and Frigeri will get both to the gold medal match. Natalia Nasaridze from Turkey, the European Champion of 2000 and Galinovskaya from Russia will have their experience to show the two youngsters that they are still the ones to beat.
 

Didier Miéville
FITA Communication