SHANGHAI, China - Both the compound and recurve women's teams posted an incredible showing during team eliminations on Friday. Rocking the field, Crystal Gauvin (Dayville, Connecticut), joined by rookies Angela Bradley (Herald, California) and Lexi Keller (Omro, Wisconsin) worked their way through the brackets from a 6th place seed to edge out the team from Mexico in the quarter-finals and take a win over Colombia in the semis. Shooting consistently high scores throughout the day, the US team has a good chance at gold against Malaysia on Saturday.
The recurve women's team also came to play. Five-time Olympian, Khatuna Lorig (West Hollywood, California), along with young resident athlete teammates LaNola Pritchard (Chula Vista, California) and Ariel Gibilaro (Chula Vista, California), knocked out number 2 seed Russia in the quarterfinals before falling 2-6 to Germany in the semifinals. The American squad will face Japan for the bronze on Sunday.
This stellar performance is a great foundation for a team that will also compete in July at the World Archery Championships, where they will attempt to qualify Team USA's archery spots for the Rio Olympic Games. Coming off a difficult 2014 women's team ranking, this group of women has something to prove and they are making a name for themselves early in this crucial Olympic prep season.
Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho) also made headlines earlier this week in the 1/8th elimination round. Shattering the previous world record with a perfect 150 with 12Xs, Wilde made it clear he's gunning for this year's World Cup Final title.
"The previous world record was 150 10X. It was tied with the women and the juniors and I think it had been there for four years, so it was pretty good to break it," said Wilde.
Wilde, who holds the honor of being the first Archery World Cup Champion when the event began in 2006, reported being very happy with his equipment set-up this week: "I used a new release aid I've developed called the [TRU Ball] HBX. It helps to put up a new world record with it on the first day it's ever been shot!"
However, moments after claiming the record, Wilde shot a 148 to France's Sebastien Peineau's 149 and lost the quarter-final match. Other Team USA shooters faced a similar fate. Olympians Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona) and Lorig, as well as Steve Anderson (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Gauvin all exited the competition in the quarterfinals. Braden Gellenthien (Hudson, Massachusetts) had the best performance in qualifications and then was upset in the 1/16th round by Chris Bell of Great Britain.
Competition resumes Saturday with compound finals and Sunday for recurve finals. For complete results from today and live scores throughout the weekend, click here and visit USA Archery on Facebook and Twitter for photos and updates from the field.
Some information attributed to World Archery Communication.
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