Nine notes: Eliminations at Shanghai 2016

The traditional season opener in Shanghai, now in its ninth year of hosting a stage of archery’s international and annual competition circuit, moves into the latter stages of the individual events. 

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1. When you need it…

In the recurve men’s first round, there were nine shoot-off deciders. Seven of those tiebreakers were won by an archer shooting an arrow in the X10. At the Korean selection shoots for Rio this year, athletes competed in a special shoot-off round, where points were awarded for those who could put a single arrow closest to the middle.

Getting that 10 (or even better) when you need it is so important in today’s archery game.

2. #UpsetWatch: Hinojosa

A first-round loss for Mexico’s Karla Hinojosa, who qualified 30th on the ranking round, came at the hand of Kyrgyzstan’s Asel Sharbekova. She shot in Copenhagen and Antalya in 2015 but, prior to that, hadn’t been seen internationally since the qualifier ahead of London 2012.

Asel’s first round match in Shanghai, and upset of Hinojosa, was also her first win on the world senior international stage. Nice!

3. One more…

…point is all Asian Games winner Esmaeil Ebadi needed to remain competitive in his first round match against Australian para archer Jonathon Milne. The latter, who finished fourth at the world para champs in Donaueschingen in 2015, posted 146, to upset the 50th seed’s 145.

Fifty, though, is not a usual ranking number to assign to Ebadi, who was the anchor to the world-championship-winning compound men’s team of Iran in 2015.

4. USA need to regroup

There was heartbreak for the USA recurve team as Mackenzie Brown, Ariel Gibilaro and Sean McLaughlin fell in the first round, and not shooting to the level all did during national selections in past weeks, and Khatuna Lorig and Jacob Wukie in the second - leaving just top-eights Brady Ellison, Zach Garrett, and LaNola Pritchard, to carry US individual hopes from the third and on.

With the USA women only having a single women’s place qualified for Rio, this is not the confidence boost the team are looking for heading into the team rounds tomorrow and the final qualifier in Antalya next month.

5. What can you do?

“I had good sensations from the bow, but I had a couple of shots go high and low, not sure exactly why,” said Seb Peineau.

The winner in Shanghai in 2015, who ranked ninth in qualification in ’16, was upset in the second round by Sarvesh Pareek, who posted a 150 in their match. Peineau scored 145 points.

“I shot great in qualification and the mixed team. Sometimes you just don't know. I’ll just concentrate on the shot and how it feels, and get back on the training field.”

6. Tough break

Number two seed and World Archery Champion Stephan Hansen had a top eight bye and was on form in his first match, the third round. Unfortunately, he recorded a miss in the second end when, as he was coming down, his release aid activated and the arrow went downrange. Shame.

For the rest of the 14 arrows of the match, he only had one out of the middle.

7. Double trouble

Not about qualification at all, but Mike Schloesser’s camp let it slip during his matches that he shot his unbelievable 717/720 world record in qualification using two different bows. Over the first 36 arrows – which he scored 359 for – he couldn’t decide which was better.

For the second half, he used the bow that didn’t miss. Incredible.

8. Korean youth

While the Korean A Team, now selected for the Rio 2016 Games, attends to its media, training and other responsibilities, a youth squad travelled to Shanghai to garner international experience.

Recurve woman Jo Areum qualified second, the highest of the squad, but was eliminated in the fourth round by Japan’s Saori Nagamine, six set points to two.

“This is my first time here, so everything is exciting and new for me,” said Jo. “It was interesting. It’s difficult to say what I can learn from it, but experience is a lesson in itself.”

9. All the difference

One arrow was all Crystal Gauvin needed to change to make the semis. The number two seed in the compound women’s competition had an eight in the first end of her quarterfinal match against Linda Ochoa-Anderson.

She had won her first two matches with five-point advantages, but couldn’t recover in the high-scoring last-eight affair, which saw her duck out, 147-146. It’s probably more, though, than she expected from Shanghai, after already admitting that the personal best she scored on the ranking round was a bit of a shock.

Plus… the finalists

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