NICKY Hunt and Simon Terry remain Britain’s best bets for Archery World Cup final glory after two home archers fell at the first hurdle on the first day of competition in Edinburgh (Saturday 18 September 2010).
Naomi Folkard, in women’s recurve, and Chris White in men’s compound, both went out in the opening rounds of their respective events at the Archery World Cup final.
Hunt is the current world number one ranked women’s compound archer, though she faces a tough start on Sunday against fellow British archer Andrea Gales; as does Terry, who goes against the current Olympic champion, Im Dong Hyun, of Korea.
The Koreans are the best recurve archers in the world, and proved it yet again when Yun Ok Hee won the women’s tournament today, beating Ukraine’s Victoriya Koval in the final. Another Korean archer – Ki Bo Bae, who beat Folkard – took the bronze medal.
“They’re good, but they’re beatable,” said Terry. “It is going to be tough whoever you are up against at this level. You don’t qualify for the World Cup final by being lucky, so if it has to be Im I’m up against first, then so be it.”
Britain’s other hope tomorrow is Alan Wills, also in men’s recurve, who faces the top seed Brady Ellison of the United States.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Sergio Pagni became a FITA World Cup history maker when he became the first archer to successfully defend a grand final title. He took the men’s compound title with victory over Braden Gellenthien of the United States in Saturday’s final, in what was a repeat of the gold medal match 12 months ago in Copenhagen.
Pagni concluded the match in style – finishing it with six successive 10s, to clinch the title 6-4.
It’s the third time in four years that the American archer has finished runner up at the World Cup grand final.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Pagni after his victory.
“It was a very intensive match and it is a big thrill to make history as I have, but during it, I was only thinking about shooting, not about records.”
After losing to Pagni in last year’s final, Gellenthien was keen to gain revenge, and said losing the final was a bitter disappointment.
“That was a shocker, I think the wind affected both shooters, and he handled it better than I did,” said the American, who beat British hope White in the opening round.
Results:
Men’s Compound: 1st round: Braden Gellenthien (USA) bt Chris White (GBR) 6-2, Shaun Teasdale (NZL) bt Dietmar Trillus (CAN) 5-5, Teasdale won 1-arrow shoot-off; Sergio Pagni (ITA) bt Martin Damsbo (DEN) 5-5, Pagni won 1-arrow shoot-off; Rodger Willet Jnr (USA) bt Jorge Jimenez 5-5, Willet won 1-arrow shoot-off. Semi-Finals: Braden Gellenthien (USA) bt Shaun Teasdale (NZL) 7-3, Sergio Pagni (ITA) bt Rodger Willet Jnr (USA) 6-4. Bronze Medal Match: Rodger Willet Jnr (USA) bt Shaun Teasdale (NZL) 6-2. Gold Medal Match: Sergio Pagni (ITA) bt Braden Gellenthien (USA) 6-4.
Women’s Recurve: 1st round: Ki Bo Bae (KOR) bt Naomi Folkard (GBR) 7-3, Yun Ok Hee (KOR) bt Alena Kuznietzova (BLR) 6-0, Victoriya Koval (UKR) bt Deepika Kumari (IND) 6-4, Justyna Mosnipek (POL) bt Dola Banerjee 6-0. Semi-Finals: Yun Ok Hee bt Ki Bo Bae 5-5 (Yun won one arrow shoot-off 10-8), Victoriya Koval (UKR) bt Justyna Mosnipek (POL) 6-0. Bronze Medal Match Ki Bo Bae bt Justyna Mosnipek 6-2. Gold Medal Match: Yun Ok Hee bt Victoriya Koval 7-3
The Archery World Cup final concludes in Edinburgh tomorrow (Sunday 19 September), with the men’s recurve and women’s compound championships.
For more information on the Archery World Cup final and a schedule for the event go to – http://www.archeryedinburgh.co.uk/ or:
FITA (international Archery Federation)- http://www.archery.org/;
Archery GB – http://www.gnas.org/;
Scottish Archery – http://www.scottisharchery.org.uk/.
Ends
Media Contact (and for media accreditation):
Paddy Cuthbert, Podge Publicity – T: 07968 699636 / E: paddy@podge.co.uk
Notes to Editors
Archery World Cup final – Edinburgh
Archery has been a permanent Olympic sport since the 1972 Olympic Games and FITA has held the World Championships since 1931. The (FITA) Archery World Cup final is the most prestigious event in the sport’s annual calendar [second only to the World Championships] and the biggest, most important archery competition ever to be staged in the UK.
The Archery World Cup final is the culmination of four World Cup qualifying events (Porec, Croatia; Antalya, Turkey; Ogden, USA and Shanghai, China) when the best 32 archers in the World (top 16 men and 16 women) bring the skill and tension of knockout archery matches (two competitors going head to head) into the very heart of Scotland’s capital city for two days of exciting competition.
Archery
The Archery World Cup final always takes place in an iconic venue. Previous host venues have included the Mayapan Pyramids in Mexico, Furj Al Arab in Dubai and City Hall Square in Copenhagen.
Bow types / archery disciplines
A recurve bow, the Olympic discipline, looks much like a traditional bow except at the very ends the tips curve forward. Instead of looking like a perfect, very wide, shallow ‘D’, it has little ‘S’-type ‘recurves’ at the tips.
These tips transfer a little more power to the stored energy in the bow limbs.
A compound bow is designed to reduce the force required to hold the string at full draw and a great benefit when holding an arrow, waiting for just that perfect shot. It has a series of off-round pulleys or cams at the ends of the bow limbs that stores energy in the string itself as well as the limbs. The cam or cams (in a double cam) create far more power then the same length limbs in a recurve bow. This system also gives the archer ‘let-off’ the maximum pull.
Some compounds have as much as an 80 per cent let-off. That means that if the bow is set at 50lb draw, it takes you 50lbs of strength to pull the bow string back to a point (about halfway) the cams kick in and at full draw it takes 10lbs (80 per cent reduction of draw) of pull to hold the string back.
This a great benefit when holding an arrow, waiting for just that perfect shot.
Arrows
Arrows in the classic bow events can travel in excess of 150 miles per hour. They are made of either aluminium or carbon graphite. Aluminium arrows are more uniform in weight and shape, while graphite arrows fly faster.
The competition
The World Cup final is restricted to the 32 best archers in the world – the eight top ranked men and eight top ranked women over the season-long World Cup series in each of the two disciplines, compound and recurve.
It’s a knockout format event with two archers going head to head, shooting a maximum of 15 arrows in five sets of three arrows at a target that is 70m (230ft) distant. Each archer shoots alternately with a maximum of 20 seconds allowed per arrow. Each arrow is scored one -ten depending how close they are to the centre. The archer with the highest score goes to next round and in the event of a tie, there is a one arrow tie-breaker.
Partners of the ARCHERY WORLD CUP FINAL 2010 include:
City of Edinburgh Council
Edinburgh is a beautiful, dynamic, cosmopolitan city with an unique architectural heritage and a magnificent natural setting. It is host to many thousands of visitors who come here throughout the year to enjoy numerous cultural and sporting events such as the world-famous Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and the Six Nations rugby matches.
With around one million overseas visitors a year, Edinburgh is the UK’s most visited tourist destination outside London. Edinburgh is one of the most attractive cities in the world, a fact recognised by UNESCO when conferring World Heritage Site status on the city’s Old and New Towns. Edinburgh was recently voted number one in a list of British cities to ‘see before you die’.
EventScotland
EventScotland is the national events agency.
EventScotland is working to make Scotland one of the world’s leading event destinations. By developing an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events EventScotland is helping to raise Scotland’s international profile and boost the economy by attracting more visitors.
For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit www.EventScotland.org
UK Sport
UK Sport’s World Class Events Programme distributes approximately £4 million of Lottery funding each year to support the bidding and staging costs of major events on home soil, as well as providing specialist support to organisers.
Events are supported primarily based on their likely performance impact, but the broader impacts of events are also examined, to maximise the wider sporting, social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits, as well as sporting performance and legacy.
Up to 60 events across 30 sports will be supported from 2010 until the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
These competitions will attract around 17,000 athletes and provide opportunities for over 10,000 officials and volunteers to gain international sporting experience and develop key skills ahead of London 2012. More @ www.uksport.gov.uk/events
Archery GB – http://www.archerygb.org
The Scottish Archery Association – http://www.scottisharchery.org.uk/
MEDIA RELEASE posted by Podge Publicity. You too can post media releases (aka press releases) on allmediascotland.com. For more information, email here.
Contact: Paddy Cuthbert
Phone: 07968 699636
Email: paddy@podge.co.uk
Website: http://www.archeryedinburgh.co.uk/
