Frangilli, Yun Mi Jin reign supreme

Published : Aug 09, 2003 00:00 IST

Italy's Michele Frangilli takes aim at the target during the men's final. Frangilli defeated Im Dong Hyun of Korea 113-112-Pic. AP
Italy's Michele Frangilli takes aim at the target during the men's final. Frangilli defeated Im Dong Hyun of Korea 113-112-Pic. AP
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Italy's Michele Frangilli takes aim at the target during the men's final. Frangilli defeated Im Dong Hyun of Korea 113-112-Pic. AP

KOREA dominated the 42nd World outdoor target archery championship held in New York City from July 14 to 20, but Italian Michele Frangilli held his own winning the coveted men's individual Olympic round.

KOREA dominated the 42nd World outdoor target archery championship held in New York City from July 14 to 20, but Italian Michele Frangilli held his own winning the coveted men's individual Olympic round. The World No. 3 defied the Korean system, taming the teenage sensation, Im Dong Hyun 113-112 in a keenly contested final. Thus he became the second non-Korean World champion after Australia's Simon Fairweather, who triumphed in 1991.

Olympic champion Yun Mi Jin led a Korean sweep in the women's section. En route to becoming only the second archer to win the Olympic and World title after her legendary compatriot Soo Nyung Kim, the 20-year-old denied 2001 World champion Park Sung Hyun her second title and a place in history. Yun defeated Park 116-111.

Frangilli, two-time Olympic medallist, who won the World indoor crown in 2001, the World field title in 2002 at Canberra and now the World outdoor crown, is the son of former Olympian Vittorio Frangilli. The 27-year-old's first major achievement was winning the individual bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics where he set a record in the 72-arrow qualification round with a score of 684. He was part of the gold medal winning Italian team at the 1999 World meet at Riom, France. Frangilli, adjudged the Italian athlete of the year in 1996 and 1998, aims to win a gold medal in the Olympics.

Yun, who came to the World meet after winning the European Grand Prix Golden Arrow final, was ranked second, behind Natalia Valeeva of Italy. Yun had finished third at the Busan Asian Games. Her team-mate Lee Huyn Jung's victory over Russia's Margarita Galinovskaya for the bronze medal gave Korea a 1-2-3 sweep.

Korea was unstoppable in the team championship. The Korean men's team is the reigning Olympic champion. Since 1991, the Korean men's team has won four gold and two silver medals, contesting every final. The defending champion retained the honour it won at Beijing in 2001 with a fluent 238-234 victory over Sweden. The women's team got back the crown after failing in the 1999 and 2001 championships. Surprise finalist Japan was no match for Korea, going down 233-252.

The Korean men's trio, Ho Jang Yong, Kwang Choi Young and Im Dong Hyun, set a World record by accumulating 4078 points in ranking No. 1 among teams after the FITA round. The previous best was 4053 scored by the Korean team of Oh Kyo Moon, Lee Kyong Chul and Kim Jae Rak at Jakarta in 1995.

On the individual front, Sydney 2000 Games' team gold medallist, Jang Yong Ho's first day score of 337 over the 90m distance bettered the previous World best of 334 achieved by his current teammate Kwang Choi Young at Yecheon in Korea in March 2002.

The Indian men's team, comprising Satyadev Prasad, Acharya Ved Kumar and Tarundeep Rai, sprang a surprise by moving into the semi-finals, where it came a cropper against the reigning champion Korea, losing 238 to 242. India also went down to Italy 244-252 in the bronze medal match. Yet, India's fourth-place finish was the best in a World championship.

The Indian women's team, ranked 18th, downed fifth-ranked Turkey 236-217 to reach the quarterfinals and like its men's team made it to the Athens Games. In the next round, the Indian trio of Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro, lost by three points to the second-ranked Ukraine, at 236-239. This was the first time an Indian women's team had qualified for the Olympics.

The results:

Men's final (12 arrows): Michele Frangilli (Ita) 113 bt Im Dong Hyun (Kor) 112.

Bronze medal: David Barnes (Aus) 115 bt Tim Cuddihy (Aus) 106.

Semifinals: Frangilli 109 bt Cuddihy 107; Im 112 bt Barnes 107.

Quarterfinals: Frangilli 110 bt Cheng Pang Wang (Tpe) 109; Cuddihy 108 bt Hasse Pavia Lind (Den) 107; Im 110 bt Wietse van Alten (Ned) 108; Barnes 115 bt Szu Yuan Chen (Tpe) 108.

Pre-quarterfinals (18 arrows): Wang 166 bt Jang Yong Ho (Kor) 165; Frangilli 161 bt Oleksander Serdyuk (Ukr) 154; Cuddihy 161 bt Satyadev Prasad (Ind) 154; Lind 165 bt Park Kyung Mo (Kor) 163; Im 163 bt Yuji Hammano (Jpn) 153; Alten 157 bt Jeff Henckels (Lux) 154; Barnes 166 bt Franck Fisseux (Fra) 160; Chen 165 bt Kwang Choi Young (Kor) 151.

Men's team final (27 arrows): Korea 238 (Jang Yong Ho, Kwang Choi Young & Im Dong Hyun) bt Sweden (Magnus Petersson, Mattias Eriksson & Mikael Larsson) 234.

Bronze medal: Italy (Marco Galiazzo, Michele Frangilli & Ilario di Buo) 252 bt India (Satyadev Prasad, Acharya Ved Kumar & Tarundeep Rai) 244.

Semifinals: Korea 242 bt India 238; Sweden 242 bt Italy 241.

Quarterfinals: Korea 249 bt The Netherlands 242; India 247 bt Ukraine 232; Sweden 249 bt Chinese Taipei 240; Italy 249 bt US 247.

Pre-quarterfinals: Korea 257 bt Germany 245; The Netherlands 244 bt Japan 240; Ukraine 244 bt France 239; India 249 bt Russian Federation 242; Sweden 244 bt Australia 238; Chinese Taipei 240 bt Denmark 238; US 244 bt China 240; Italy 254 bt Poland 237.

Women's final (12 arrows): Yun Mi Jin (Kor) 116 bt Park Sung Hyun (Kor) 111.

Bronze medal: Lee Huyn Jung (Kor) 107 bt Margarita Galinovskaya (Rus) 102.

Semifinals: Park 111 bt Galinovskaya 104; Yun 107,1 bt Lee 107.

Quarterfinals: Park 115 bt Linlin Xu (Chn) 97; Galinovskaya 110 bt Juan Juan Zhang (Chn) 109; Lee 109 bt Natalia Veleeva (Ita) 105; Yun 114 bt Kateryna Palekha (Ukr) 103.

Pre-quarterfinals (18 arrows): Park 170 bt Jennifer Nichols (US) 165; Xu 158, 1 bt Khatuna Poutkaradze (Geo) 158; Galinovskaya (Rus) 156 bt Shu Chi Yuan (Tpe) 155; Zhang 164 bt Elena Dostai (Rus) 160; Valeeva 163 bt Tetyana Dorokhova (Ukr) 152; Lee 161 bt Dola Banerjee (Ind) 156; Palekha 160 bt Helen Palmer (GBR) 156; Yun 164 bt Yulia Lobzhenidze (Ukr) 159.

Women's team final (27 arrows): Korea (Sung-Hyun Park, Mi-Jin Yun & Huyn-Jung Lee) 252 bt Japan (Sayami Matsushita, Sayoko Kawauchi & Yukari Kawasaki) 233.

Bronze medal: Ukraine (Nataliya Burdeyna, Yulia Lobzhenidze & Tetyana Dorokhova) 240 bt France (Berengere Schuh, Alexandra Fouace & Fabienne Bourdon) 231.

Semifinals: Korea 244 bt Ukraine 223; Japan 232 bt France 224.

Quarterfinals: Korea 242 bt Poland 242 (the former had more 10-point shots); Ukraine 239 bt India 236; France 243 bt Great Britain 234; Japan 235 bt China 234.

Pre-quarterfinals: Korea 251 bt Italy 230; Poland 241 bt Chinese Taipei 237; India 236 bt Turkey 217; Ukraine 245 bt Germany 229; Great Britain 236 bt Canada 216; France 238 bt Russian Federation 238 (the former had more 10-point shots); Japan 239 bt Mexico 231; China 241 bt US 237.

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