The last day of competition in Porec featured the Individual semi-finals and finals in front full stands and television.

Is a Star Born ? Porec, 13th May 2006

Jayanta Talukdar (IND) wins the men’s recurve and makes his mark on the first ever Archery World Cup event in Porec, Croatia. Archers from India, USA, Italy and Russia dominate the field.

 

The last day of competition in Porec featured the Individual semi-finals and finals in front full stands and television. The archers compete in four 4 categories : Men’s and Women’s Compound Bow, Men’s and Women’s Recurve Bow. They play head-to-head matches shooting 12 arrows (4 x 3 in fact) for a maximum score of 120 pts.

 

The first final and therefore the first ever final of an Archery World Cup was won by a Russian Compound archer, Ms Anna Kazantseva-Bologova. She defeated the American Jamie van Natta with 8 points after Van Natta had a missed shot due to an equipment failure. This was the dramatic finishing of a great match between the two archers.  The bronze medal went to Van Natta’s teammate Jahna Davis who is a newcomer at this level of the competition. The two Americans played each-other in the semis in a close match, 111 pts vs 110 pts in favor of Van Natta. The 4th place was for Almendra Ochoa from Mexico who will contend for a spot in the World Cup Grand Final to be held in her home country in October. The top 4 archers of each category after the 4 World Cup series (Porec, Antalya, San Salvador, Shanghai) will be invited to the Final at the feet of the pyramids Chichen Itza (MEX) for the glory and prize money.

 

 
Kazantseva-Bologova (RUS)
Photo (c) Dean Alberga

 

The Men’s compound saw the two times World Indoor Champion Reo Wilde (USA), showing that the Wilde family is still setting the tone in Men’s compound archery. After winning against the French top qualifier Dominique Genet, Reo beat Emiel Custers from the Netherlands by a large margin. The bronze medal was the consolation for Genet by clinching the match by one point against the surprising Philippe Prieels from Belgium (112 vs 111 pts). Prieels was ranked 39th after the qualification round.

 

The Women’s recurve final could have been an Italian only final but the last arrow of Pia Carmen Lionneti, only a “seven”, gave the victory to Galinovskaya from Russia. Pia Carmen’s team mate, Maura Frigeri, won against Natalia Nasaridze (TUR) in her semi final after a terrible start in very windy conditions for Natalia. The first end deficit set the tone for the rest of the match. The Gold medal final was won easily by Galinovskaya, who after a catastrophic “two” by Frigeri at the 4th arrow, kept her concentration to shoot some superb arrows making a great score of 116. The bronze medal was clinched by Pia Carmen Lionneti shooting 109, her highest score of the tournament.

 

Jayanta Talukdar (IND)
Photo (c) Dean Alberga

 

In the last final of the day the gold medal was disputed between Magnus Petersson (SWE), silver medalist of the Atlanta Olympics and Jayanta Talukdar (IND), who defeated the Olympic Champion Marco Galiazzo (ITA) in the semi finals in a very close, windy and cheerful match. It came down to very last arrow, Talukdar winning 109 to 108 pts. He is the rising star in the Archery world after he already had won the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok last February, beating there the Koreans archers. Talukdar beat Petersson in the final 108 - 105, making the difference in his last 3 arrows. The bronze went to the Ukranian Ivashko who won against Marco Galiazzo (114-113 pts).

 

For the World Cup, there is also a nation ranking taking into account all points earned by the competitors of one nation. After the first event, USA leads with Italy and Russia in 2nd and 3rd place. The 10 first countries will receive a prize monney.

 

Tom Dielen / Didier Miéville

FITA Communication