With four world records falling in the ranking round, the 1-16 elimination round on Wednesday at the Olympic Green Archery Field is expected to be exciting.
In Men's Individual Recurve - W1/W2, as the top seeds Taras Chopyk of Ukraine and Kim Hong-kyu of the Republic of Korea have been given a bye and will not compete in the round, the highlight of the morning is slated to be the clash between Lee Hong-gu of the Republic of Korea and Michael Karaphillides of Great Britain. Lee impressed in the ranking round finishing third with a score of 629 points, but Karaphillides failed to impress, finishing 30th with 520 points.
In the Men's Individual Recurve - Standing category, top seeds Mario Esposito of Italy and Chen Yegang of China have been given a bye and will not compete in 1-16 elimination round. Ukraine's Serhiy Atamanenko will, however, take on defending Paralympic Champion Imrich Lyocsa of Slovakia. Atamanenko was seeded second coming into the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, however his form in the ranking round failed to impress. He finished 23rd with a score of 510. Lyocsa claimed tenth position in the ranking round. Athens bronze medalist An Tae-sung of the Republic of Korea will take on China's Zhu Weiliang. An claimed the 17th position in the ranking round with a score of 580 points, whereas Zhu finished with 591 points.
Top seeds John Stubbs of Great Britain and Lee Ouk-soo of the Republic of Korea of Men's Individual Compound – Open have been given a bye and will not compete in the 1-16 Elimination round. With the top seeds missing, the clash between Sweden's Anders Gronberg and Italy's Alberto Simonelli will be a highlight. Gronberg finished 18th in the ranking round scoring 657 points, whereas Simonelli finished 15th, scoring 667 points. The match between pre-competition favorite Kweon Hyun-ju of the Republic of Korea and Eric Bennett of the United States is expected to be close.
In Women's Individual Recurve - W1/W2, top seeds Xiao Yanhong and Fu Hongzhi of China have been given a bye and will not compete in the round. With their absence the match between Kathleen Smith Critchlow of Great Britain and Larysa Mikhnyeva of Ukraine will be closely watched. Critchlow finished 15th in the ranking round scoring 498 points and Mikhnyeva scored 451 points.
In Women's Individual Recurve – Standing, defending Paralympic champion Wang Yanhong of China will take on Lindsey Carmichael of the United States in the elimination round on Wednesday and the match is expected to be the highlight of this category. Wang failed to impress in the ranking round with a score of 485 points while Carmichael finished with a score of 536 points. Top seeds Lee Hwa-sook of the Republic of Korea and Gao Fangxia of China will not compete in the round, after being given a bye.
In Men's Individual Compound - W1, the Republic of Korea's An Seong-pyo will take on Zdenek Sebek of the Czech Republic in the Men's Individual Compound - W1 category. An will begin the clash as a favorite after finishing sixth in the ranking round. Sebek failed to impress finishing eleventh. Top seeds David Drahoninsky of Czech Republic and Jeff Fabry from the United States will not compete in the 1-16 elimination round, after being given a bye.
(BOCOG September 9, 2008)