UK Student Archery Association

Glover's silver Taiwan highlight [25/Jul/08]

So the crew from Taiwan have shaken the metaphorical sand out of their shoes. The final postcard has been added - although the plane did beat it home by nearly a fortnight.

In the ladies recurve division former Edinburgh team mates Emma Downie and Jenny Jeppsson lined up for GB and Sweden respectively and were as closely matched as ever. Downie qualified 12th with 613, Jeppsson 2 places and 3 points further back, both ladies receiving byes into the round of 32. Unfortunately both were then upset by lower ranked opposition, Downie 102-110 to Anna Sklodowska (Poland) and Jeppsson 98-100 to Shen Hsiao-Chun (Taiwan). Andy Callaway (Bournemouth) lost 97-105 to Anton Lunstrom (Sweden) after having qualified 34th with 594.

GB joy came principally from the compounds. Gloucestershire's Stephanie Crang was the highest British qualifier in 8th after a 663. With no round of 64, Crang easily beat Chang Hsia-Theng (Taiwan) 113-102 in R32. In the R16 however she slipped to a surprise defeat 106-107 to Mohd Latifi Faradilla (Malaysia). In the gents, Phil Glover of Loughborough won no less than four matches on a run that took him all the way to the final and a magificent silver medal. BUSA champion indoors and out, a score of 669 put him 16th in the gents compound field. A bye in the round of 64 was followed by a 116 to notch an impressive 8 point win. In the round of 16, the 16th seed is usually in trouble and so it proved as Brasseur (France) scored a mighty 117. Glover matched it and took the match to a shoot off. Nine followed nine, ten followed ten, until Glover won the match with a nine against a one. A 110 was enough to see off Mexican oppostion in the QF, whilst another convincing 116-108 win saw off Vandepoele of Belgium in the semis. In the final second seed American Jedd Greschock eked out a 112-110 win to deny Glover the title, but a medal of any colour at this level is a terrific achievement.

In the mixed team events, only the top 8 qualify and the GB recurves just missed out. The GB compounds qualified 6th, but lost out 14-15 on a hit miss target to the Russian pair Khlyschenko and Balzhanova who went on to win silver.

All in all with team GB racking up a medal and 5 wins to 4 defeats, a pretty successful little outing to the Far East. Emma Downie will be out in this neck of the woods again shortly as she is the travelling reserve for the British ladies at the Olympics. Looking forward to 2009, archery is at the 25th Summer Universiade in Belgrade in Serbia - start saving those outdoor scores now, because you will need them when the application form comes out in early 2009.

Phil Glover's route to silver:

Qualifying 332+337=669 (33 golds, 11 Xs) 16th/37

R64 bye

R32 beat B Anandaev (qualified 17, Russia) 116-108

R16 beat S Brasseur (1, France) 117-117, SO 9.10.9-9.10.1

QF beat G Alvarado (9, Mexico) 110-105

SF beat M Vandepoele (27, Belgium) 116-108

F lost J Greschock (2, USA) 110-112