Italian women make history with first compound team gold Wroclaw - Saturday, August 24, 2013 The highlight of the morning was Italy’s first-ever team gold in the compound women’s event, while on the men’s side the United States recovered the World Cup gold after two setbacks. The gold medal seemed like a difficult mission for the Italian women: they had never won it before and were facing the United States, winners of the last World Cup stage. The United States has the strongest athlete at the moment: world N°1 Erika JONES - and Italy has never been able to defeat the American archers in seven encounters over the past five years. But all this changed today thanks to Anastasia ANASTASIO, Laura LONGO, and Marcella TONIOLI. These three women, each accomplished individuals, carefully crafted their lead from the very first end. Several 7s on the US side gave them a little help, and despite the United States’ ability to narrow the margin to two points before the last six arrows, Italy answered superbly: with 9-10-10-10-10-10 for their historic first-ever gold medal (223-219). “We are very happy with this first gold medal”, declared the Italian archers. “Despite the strength of our opponents, we managed to keep our advantage through the end of the match.” The bronze medal match featured the top two newcomers this season: Shanghai winner Korea against Antalya winner Colombia. With Antalya and Medellin individual champions Sara LOPEZ and Alejandra USQUIANO in their ranks, Colombia built a lead from the start, and with the help of several 8s from the Korean archers, Colombia led by five points before the final three arrows. However a disastrous finish of 6-7-8 handed the victory to CHOI Bomin, SEO Jung Hee and SEOK Ji Hyun, 221-217. This bronze medal was in fact a bit of revenge for Korea, who had been defeated by Colombia in Antalya in the quarter-finals. On the men’s side, the United States were looking for a victory after missing the gold in Antalya and Medellin. Dave COUSINS, Braden GELLENTHIEN, and world N°1 Reo WILDE faced surprising finalist South Africa in the final. High-scoring earlier this week, and confident from their performances, South Africa was able to aim high. Gabriel BADENHORST, Dp BIERMAN, and Patrick ROUX knew the task was not impossible, as a different South African team had defeated the United States in the final of the 2010 World Cup in Antalya. However, the United States never looked to be in danger today. They established their lead slowly but surely and never looked back. With their victory of 232-230 the Americans have recovered the compound men’s team crown. It is the first ever World Cup podium for these South African athletes. The bronze medal match between Korea and the Netherlands was very close, with a tie at the halfway mark… until a bad 6, in changing weather conditions, turned the tide, putting the Netherlands at a disadvantage. A four-point deficit and only one end to recover from it proved impossible. With the pressure off, Korea even increased their lead further for a victory, 228-222. CHOI Yong Hee, KIM Jong Ho and MIN Lihong have matched their result from the Shanghai stage with this bronze medal, and claim their second-ever World Cup podium finish. Competition continues this afternoon in Wroclaw with the individual finals.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 04:27:43 +0000
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