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The final Olympic qualification tournament, the Meteksen Archery World Cup Stage 4, in Boe, France, saw the final 10 berths for the Beijing Olympic Games taken yesterday.

To win their ticket to Beijing, the archers had to either make it into the semifinals or be the best of those who didn’t.

The five men’s recurve places went to Finland’s Matti Hatava, Milan Andreas of the Czech Republic, Maxim Kunda from Belarus and Poland’s Nuno Pombo, who all reached the semifinals, with Spanish archer Daniel Morillo, qualifying as the highest scoring loser.

The men’s gold medal match was staged between Hatava and Pombo – which the Polish archer finally won 113-108 despite a strong start by his rival. Andreas beat Kunda by a margin of just three points in the bronze medal match.

In the women’s event, Anja Hitzler of Germany won the gold medal, beating Iranian archer Majmeh Abtin in the final, 106-102. Nathalie Dielen from Switzerland won the battle for the bronze with a hard-fought win against Elena Mousikou of Cyprus, also by a score of 106-102.

Barbora Horackova of the Czech Republic secured a place in the Olympics by outscoring the other quarterfinalists, who miss out.

The Boe World Cup event will end on Saturday, June 28.

(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)

Stage 4 of the Meteksan Archery World Cup concluded Saturday in Boe, France with both Republic of Korea and France dominating the competition in both men’s and women’s team categories. Republic of Korea took home Gold in Men and Women’s Team Recurve while France did the same in Men and Women’s Compound.

In Individual Finals, Gold went to Viktor Ruban (UKR) in Recurve Men, Park Sung-Hyun (KOR) in Recurve Women, Patrick Coghlan (AUS) in Compound Men, and to Luzmary Guedez (VEN) in Compound Women.

Recurve Men Team

Republic of Korea clinched the Gold Medal and Malaysia took Silver with a final score of 228-215. Russia took the Bronze Medal in a surprise victory of 219-214 over Spain who maintained the lead for the entire match until bested in the final arrows.

Recurve Women Team

The faceoff for the Gold Medal was a much anticipated match featuring the World Ranking number 1 team Italy with World Champion Natalia Valeeva against the World Ranking number 3 team Republic of Korea with Olympic Champion Park Sung-Hyun. Republic of Korea closed the match to take the Gold with a final score of 222-220. Great Britain was able to shake off a strong challenge by the Chinese team to clinch the Bronze Medal at 206-204.

Compound Men Team

Mirroring a win by their female counterparts, the French men’s team overtook Australia for the Gold with a final score of 227-224. Canada clinched the Bronze Medal over Spain at 229-215.

Compound Women Team

The French Compound Women’s Team was not deterred by a yellow card in the last stretches of the final round, pushing through to take the Gold on their home turf at 216-207. Russia closed out the match against Iran to take home the Bronze with a score of 228-216.

Recurve Men

Lausanne World Cup Final qualifier Viktor Ruban (UKR), ranked 27th in the world, faced Li Wenquan (CHN), ranked 110th, in a tie-breaker shoot-off to collect the first Gold Medal of the event for Ukraine. Park Kyung-Mo (KOR) beat Xue Haifeng (CHN) to take the Bronze with a final score of 111-102.

Recurve Women

Battle for the Gold in Women’s Recurve pitted world number 2, Yun Ok Hee (KOR), against world ranked number 3, Park Sung-Hyun (KOR). The last time these fellow countrymen shot against each other was at the World Cup Stage 3 competition in Antalya where Yun broke the World Record with 119 points. The fierce completion ended with Park taking the Gold Medal at a final score of 111-109. Chinese teammates Zhao Ling (CHN) and Zhang Juan Juan (CHN) similarly battled it out for the Bronze with Zhang sweeping up the medal at 113-105.

Compound Men

Patrick Coghlan (AUS) took the Gold in a consecutive tie-breaker shoot-off against Kevin Tataryn (CAN) from a tie at 115 points. Patrizio Hofer (SUI) and Martin Damsbo (DEN) faced off for the Bronze with Martin taking the medal with a score of 117-116.

Compound Women

Luzmary Guedez (VEN) in a strong comeback beat Nichola Simpson (GBR) for the Gold at 111-110. Having last faced off in the 2007 World Cup Final in Dubai, Jamie Van Natta (USA) and Anna Kazantseva (RUS) spared for the Bronze with the American clinching the medal 111-110.

Meteksan Archery World Cup Stage 4 Finals Results

June 28, 2008