VALLADONT world champion at home!

Val d’Isere – France, August 19, 2012: Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA) became the first recurve men world champion for France! Elena RICHTER (GER) won it in recurve women. Jesse BROADWATER (USA) got his first individual world title in compound men and so did Ivana BUDEN in compound women. The new barebow world champions are Sebastian JUANOLA CODINA (ESP) and Lina BJORKLUND (SWE).

Archers shot the individual finals today on the Bellevarde venue in Val d’Isere at the feet of the famous downhill skiing race. The athletes shot on the same four targets as in the team finals yesterday, but they shot simultaneously. They had three minutes to shoot three arrows per target. There were 6 rings on each target (scoring 6 to 1).

All the targets were upwards compared to the shooting position. The first two targets were slightly on the left of the archers, while the last two were on the right, with more side effect and longer distance than the first two targets. The last two targets were the most difficult.

Moreover the targets were well positioned within the slope of the hill. So the challenge for the archers was to “reduce” the aiming distance, but not too much. It depended also of course of the power of the bow (barebow, recurve, compound).

Recurve Men

Gold Medal Match: Jean-Charles VALLADONT (FRA/1) v Jake KAMINSKI (USA/2)

This was a battle between the two-time world team silver medallists in target archery against the Olympic team silver medallist. VALLADONT is 23 years old and KAMINSKI just turned 24 earlier in August. KAMINSKI was silver medallist at the Indoor World Championships in early 2012.

VALLADONT started the match really well with 5-5-6 and 4-5-6, whereas KAMINSKI had 4-6-4 and 5-4-4. The French led 30-27!

The score was perfectly equal at the third target, 4-4-5 or both athletes. VALLADONT was taking with him a 3-point advantage to the last target as well as the loud cheering of the crowd!

At the last target, VALLADONT shot a 6! KAMINSKI a 4! 5 for Jean-Charles! 6 for Jake! KAMINSKI shot the last arrow first, scoring 6! Pressure was on the Frenchman! VALLADONT finished with a 4, enough to become world champion! Final score 58-56! First French field world champion in Recurve Men! First French to be crown world champion in Val d’Isère in the history of the famous skiing resort!

Bronze Medal Match: Jon SHALES (GBR/4) v Aurelien RABANET (FR/3)

SHALES is 38 and won many medals in his career, including the individual silver at the last field world championships. RABANET, 25, shoots for an international medal for the first time.

Experience talked on the first taget, since SHALES scored 5-4-6 versus RABANET’s 3-4-5. The British led 15-12, but RABANET did not give up and came back 25-26 after the second target. RABANET came even closer when he shot a 5 to start on the third target. Unfortunately, he followed it up with 2-4. SHALES gave himself some room to maneuver shooting 4-3-6 to lead 39-36. RABANET lost his last chances when he shot a Miss to start the fourth end. He would have needed a 6. The Frenchman finished with 4-4. SHALES was solid with 3-4-4 and added one more medal to his collection with. Final score 50-44.

Recurve Women

Gold Medal Match: Elena RICHTER (GER/1) v Zoe GOBBELS (BEL/2)

RICHTER had a good season which culminated with a team bronze medal at the European Championships and a participation in the London Olympic Games. The 20-year-old was the field youth world champion and placed 6th at the Youth Olympic Games in 2010. RICHTER was very consistent in this match: 12 points on each target! Her total of 48 points was enough to clinch the world title as GOEBBELS scored 41 points. A well-deserved gold medal considering the season of the German athlete!

Bronze Medal Match: Naomi FOLKARD (GBR/4) v Marina SZENDEY (FRA/3)

Naomi FOLKARD is another Olympian who came straight from Great Britain to Val d’Isere. She won the silver at the European Target Archery Championships this year. In the field discipline, she was the silver medallist two years ago and the team world champion yesterday! SZENDEY, who made an archery exhibition for the movie « Braves » recently, did not start well in this final with 5-3-3. FOLKARD had 5-5-5 and followed up with 3-5-5. SZENDEY took the opportunity to come back a bit in the game. She scored 5-5-5 and trailed 26-28.

The third target proved to be decisive in this match. FOLKARD shot 5-5-4, while SZENDEY had 2-4-2. The British athlete led 42-33 and won her second medal at these championships, 54-44!

Compound Men

Gold Medal Match: Jesse BROADWATER (USA/1) v Slavko TURSIC (SLO/3)

Jesse BROADWATER is a top international archer in target compound. He was a team gold and individual silver medallist at both the 2009 World Indoor Championships and the 2011 Turin World Championships. He is 28 years old. Slavko TURSIC regularly competes on the World Cup circuit, and was 8th at last year’s Turin World Championships.

The match was fierce! Both athletes scored 17 points on the first target. Then BROADWATER scored a perfect 6-6-6 to take a 2-point lead, 35-33. However, the American shot 5-5-5 on the third target, while the Slovenian had 6-5-6. The match was tied at 50-50 going to the last target!

BROADWATER shot a 5*! TURSIC a 4! The American shot a 6! The Slovenian a 5! Jesse scored a 4*! Slavko a 5! The unofficial score was 65-64 for BROADWATER. After the checks from the judges at the target, BROADWATER actually earned 6-6-5 to win the match 67-64! World champion!

Bronze Medal Match: Sander DOLDERMAN (NED/4) v Dave COUSINS (USA/2)

DOLDERMAN, 25, has been known for a few years in the field discipline. He also placed 9th individually at the Vegas Indoor World Championships earlier this year. Dave COUSINS has extensive experience. Since the mid 90s, the 35-year-old won multiple team and individual medals in world championships and in World Cup events. In fact, he already won 8 medals in 8 field world championships participation, including the individual gold in 2002 and 2010. He won the team title in 2006 and yesterday!

The match was closed and COUSINS build a small lead over the first three targets, 17-16, 32-31 and 47-45. COUSINS kept shooting fast and with confidence on the last target! He shot 6-6-4 to clinch a 9th medal at world field championships! DOLDERMAN finished with 4-5-4. COUSINS won 63-58!

Compound Women

Gold Medal Match: Paige PEARCE (USA/1) v Ivana BUDEN (CRO/2)

Paige PEARCE, born in 1995, was the 2009 cadet world champion in target archery. Ivana BUDEN, 26, was also young talent and has already gathered many podiums in field and target archery. She is a former No. 1 of the World Ranking.

After her brother Domagoj’s bronze medal this morning, Ivana BUDEN was shooting for gold this afternoon. She was really consistent and strong on the first three targets, shooting 16-16-16. She built a good lead, 48-44, going to the last target. The young PEARCE shot better on the fourth target (14-13) but BUDEN became world champion! Final score 61-58.

Bronze Medal Match: Ulrika SJOWALL (SWE/4) v Petra GOEBEL (AUT/3)

Both archers were born in 1971 and have a lot of experience. Ulrika SJOWALL was the target world champion in Beijing 2001. She then turned to field and became team world champion in 2006. Petra GOEBEL (born FRIEDL) won many medals at the field championships and at the World Games!

SJOWALL led the first half of the match 31-28. However she did not finish as well, scoring only 21 points in the second half. GOEBEL was more consistent in this match, shooting ends of 16, 12, 14, 13. She won another world medal, 55-52!

Barebow Men

Gold Medal Match: Sebastian JUANOLA CODINA (ESP/1) v Alan EAGLETON (USA/2)

EAGLETON won gold yesterday with the U.S. team. He is shooting in his first world championships! JUANOLA CODINA is also new at this level of competition. The barebow have slightly shorter distance (5 metres less) officially and this means there are also more «in » the slope. They must therefore even reduce a bit more their aiming distance. The challenge is nevertheless to find a good position on the ground and to control the shot from a technical point of view, despite aiming upwards.

It was a tight match between these two archers. JUANOLA CODINA took a slight advantage with 5-4-5 and 5-5-5 for 29 points, while EAGLETON had 5-4-4 and 5-5-5 for 28. JUANOLA CODINA however was not so consistent on the third target with 4-2-2. EAGLETON took advantage of it with 3-4-4 to take the lead, 39-37.

The American finished with 3-2-4. The Spaniard took the opportunity to turn the match around one last time to shoot 3-5-4. JUANOLA CODINA brought a world title to Spain, 49-48!

Bronze Medal Match: Olivier ROY (FRA/4) v Guiseppe SEIMANDI (ITA/3)

Olivier ROY became the local hero yesterday when he delivered the best performance of the French team during the bronze medal final, and shot a final 6 to give his country the medal. He is shooting on the French field national team for the first time. Giuseppe SEIMANDI is 25 and silver medallist at the last world championships.

Both athletes entered well in the match and SEIMANDI took a 1-point lead, 14-13.

The drama came with the first arrow of the second target. SEIMANDI shot a 6, while ROY shot on the wrong target! It was a 4 but counted as 0. ROY finished with 4-3, while the Italian had 4-4 to take a comfortable lead, 28-20.

ROY was cheered very loudly by the fans and finished the match with 4-3-4 and 4-4-3. The experienced SEIMANDI did not let go anything on the last targets. He shot 4-6-4 and 4-6-5 to take home another world medal, 55-42!

Barebow Women

Gold Medal Match: Eleonora STROBBE (ITA/1) v Lisa BJORKLUND (SWE/3)

STROBBE is the defending world champion and the 2009 World Games winner, but BJORKLUND shot superbly today! The Swedish started with 3-6-6 and 5-3-5 to take a strong lead 28-21. STROBBE shot a bit better on the third target with 4-6-3, while BJORKLUND scored 3-4-3. The Italian was back in contention, trailing 34-38. STROBBE pretty much lost her last chances starting with a 3 on the last target. BJORKLUND stayed very solid with 4-5-3 to win the gold medal 50-45!

Bronze Medal Match: Andrea RAIGEL (AUT/4) v Monika JENTGES (GER/2)

The experience JENTGES built a good lead after two targets, 13-12, 24-20. However she only scored 1-1-1 on the third target and RAIGEL took the opportunity to come back at 27-27. Both athletes finished well. RAIGEL shot 4-2 and a perfect 6. JENTGES had a 3-5-5. She won a new bronze medal, 59-58, but she was a happy as ever! And she let her fans know!

Special thanks to multiple field world champion Carole FERRIOU and Olympic champion Sebastian FLUTE for their help with these live commentaries. The athletes loved these world championships. Superb new world champions were crowned! Thank you Val d’Isere!

Four countries win junior gold medals in Val d’Isère

The junior archers shot the individual medal matches today on the Bellevarde venue in Val d’Isere.

The athletes shot on the same four targets as in the team finals yesterday, but they shot simultaneously. They had three minutes to shoot three arrows per target. There were 6 rings on each target (scoring 6 to 1).

All the targets were upwards compared to the shooting position. The first two targets were slightly on the left of the archers, while the last two were on the right, with more side effect and longer distance than the first two targets. The last two targets were the most difficult.

Moreover the targets were well positioned within the slope of the hill. So the challenge for the archers was to “reduce” the aiming distance, but not too much. It depended also of course of the power of the bow (barebow, recurve, compound).

Recurve Junior Men

Gold Medal Match: Marco MORELLO (ITA/1) v Jesper FREDRIKSSON (SWE/3)
FREDRIKSSON and MORELLO represent two powerhouse of field archery, Italy and Sweden. However, these countries have not won many medals so far in these championships. In this match, it is FREDRIKSSON who brought a title to his country. Score evolution 12-11, 27-24, 41-33, 55-44.

Bronze Medal Match: Mark NESBITT (GBR/4) v Paul Andre HAGEN (NOR/2)
NESBITT is already an experienced archer in the junior division. He started with 5-4-5 for 14 points, while HAGEN scored a nice 6-5-6 to build an early lead 17-14. The Norwegian was really solid in this match and he increased his lead at every target. He led 31-27, 47-43 finally won the bronze medal 60-55.

Recurve Junior Women

Gold Medal Match: Mirjam TUOKKOLA (FIN) Marion VIVES (FRA)
This match started well for both athletes since VIVES started with 5-5-4 and TUOKKOLA 5-4-4. Then the Finnish archer shot 3-4-5 to reach 25 points, while the home crowd favourite had 3-5-5 to take a 2-point lead (27). The French favourite made the difference on the difficult third target shooting 4-4-4 to reach 39 points while TUOKKOLA could only get to 33 points. VIVES confirmed her supremacy in the last target shooting 5-5-4 to become world champion on the score of 53-39!

Bronze Medal Match: Sandra VAN DER LOOY (NED) v Brina BOZIC (SLO)
VAN DER LOOY showed confidence, shooting fast in the first two targets and scoring good points: 4-4-4 and 3-5-5 for 24. BOZIC used all the time she had and also managed 24 (4-4-3 and 4-5-4). On the third target, the Dutch archer took a 1-point lead shooting 4-3-4, while BOZIC had 3-3-4. In the last target, VAN DER LOOY shot again faster than BOZIC getting 4-3-4 reaching 46 points. The Slovenian had to score at least 12 points in the end to tie the match, which was approximately what the two archers had been shooting per target during this match. BOZIC started well with a 5 and a 4 but concluded with a 2, which let the bronze medal to her opponent. Victory for VAN DER LOOY 46-45.

Compound Junior Men

Gold Medal Match: Alex BRIDGMAN (GBR/4) v Renaud DOMANSKI (BEL/2)
BRIDGMAN is a well-known archer in the field junior division, but Belgium always bring good competitors like DOMANSKI. The Belgium competitor built a lead after two targets, 16-14, 30-27. He kept it at 46-43. He finished only with 4-5-4, but his opponent did 5-5-5 to fall one point short. DOMANSKI is world champion, 59-58.

Bronze Medal Match: Mario VAVRO (CRO) v Domagoj BUDEN (CRO)
In the BUDEN family, here is the son (or the brother) Domagoj. It was an all-Croatian final, as his opponent was his teammate Mario VAVRO. It was a high-level match as VAVRO started with a perfect 6-6-6 to take an 18-16 lead. Both archers continued very well with 6-5-4 for VAVRO and 6-5-6 for BUDEN who tied the match at 33-33. Then both athletes shot 13 points to reach 46-46. Both athletes started with 5-5. It came down to the last arrow. BUDEN put pressure with a 5 very close to the 6 ring. VAVRO could only manage a 4. The BUDEN family brought another medal to Croatia.

Compound Junior Women

Gold Medal Match: Sabrina FRANZOI (ITA/4) v Maja ORLIC (CRO/2)
Another very close match! The athletes traded ends of 14 and 15 in the first two targets. Then they both shot 13 on the third target. ORLIC finished with 4-4-5. FRANZOI brought a title to Italy scoring a good 6-5-4 in the last target. Victory and gold medal for FRANZOI, 57-55.

Bronze Medal Match: Daisy CLARK (GBR/1) v Runa GRYDELAND (NOR/3)
What a match between CLARK and GRYDELAND! The athletes were very close throughout the whole match: 14-14, 29-29, 42-42. Both girls finished with a nice total of 16 points in the last end (4-6-6 and 5-5-6). The score was tied at 58-58. Shoot-off! Both athletes shot a 5. The judge needed to measure which one was the closest to the centre, and they were exactly at the same distance! The athletes had to shoot a second arrow. This time CLARK shot a 4. GRYDELAND had a perfect 6 to win the bronze medal. —- World Archery Communication