NOVE MESTO, Czech Republic - On a growing international para world ranking event circuit, Nove Mesto has become one of the most popular annual events in the calendar. This year, over 400 athletes are competing from 48 countries. As U.S. archers are still vying for spots on the 2016 U.S. Paralympic Archery Team, this event is their last international experience before the final stage of Trials later this month. It is also the compound open women's last chance to secure a quota slot for the Games.
World Champion Eric Bennett (Surprise, Arizona) led the recurve open men, qualifying 2nd with a 637, with a personal best first half of 330. Timothy Palumbo (Williamsville, New York) scored a 624 to qualify 10th and Michael Lukow's (Salt Lake City, Utah) 592 ranked him 31st. Archers from Russia had a stronghold on this division, but the men qualified 2nd as a team, putting them in good reach of a medal.
The U.S. compound open women are the only group yet to qualify any spots for the Rio Paralympic Games, so their qualification scores counted for the Nove Mesto competition, as well as the Final World Quota Tournament. Teresa Wallace (North Charleston, South Carolina) led the pack with a 638 to qualify 23rd, while Samantha Tucker (Nampa, Idaho) and Martha Chavez (Leemore, California) scored 614 and 602 respectively to qualify 28th and 32nd for a team qualification of 4th.
For the Quota Tournament, they ranked 9th, 14th, and 17th. The top three archers will earn individual quota places for their countries.
Gabriel Marcozzi (Media, Pennsylvania) seeded 12th for the compound open men with a 679 ahead of Jeff Sena's (Cottage Grove, Oregon) 660 to qualify 36th. Wallace and Marcozzi will compete together in the compound open mixed team event where they are seeded 14th.
Chuck Lear (Lees Summit, Missouri) and Jerry Shields (Jacksonville, Florida) qualified 20th and 22nd respectively in the W1 men's division and Lia Coryell (La Crosse, Wisconsin) seeded 10th for the W1 women. Chuck and Lia's combined scores placed them 8th in qualification for the W1 mixed team event.
Complete results from the Nove Mesto and World Qualifying Tournament can be found here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Photo by Zden?k Mudroch.
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