BEIJING, China - After sealing a spot in two team finals yesterday, Team USA archers earned spots in three individual finals in today's elimination matches. Paralympic Champions Andre Shelby (Jacksonville, Florida) and Jeff Fabry (Leemore, California) will be shooting for gold while Ben Thompson (Ladsden, South Carolina) won the compound open men's bronze.
Shelby, ranked 3rd in qualification, had a bye into today's competition and with almost arrows in the gold throughout the day, took victories with scores high over the rest of the field. He won his first match 149-135 while 5th seed Thompson had a 147-141 victory to advance. Both met tough opponents in the second match, tying at 146 all. Thompson and Shelby both had arrows closer to the center to win their respective matches.
In the quarterfinals, Shelby and Thompson continued to leap towards the podium, winning their matches 148-145 over Slovakia's Marecak for Thompson and 146-144 over Great Britain's John Stubbs for Shelby.
In the semifinals, Shelby met Italy's Alberto Simonelli, who had knocked out USA teammate Lance Thornton (Scotts City, Missouri) in the 1/16th round. Shelby took an early lead with a perfect 30 and continued to increase his hold on the win with each end to take a strong 147-142 victory and shot at the gold this weekend.
Thompson faced China's Xinliang Ai, and as more of Ai's arrows found the 10 ring, Thompson conceded the match 147-144 for a shot at the bronze. Reigning team world champion, Thompson was not to be denied a return to the podium. With perfect 30s in the second two ends and only 4 arrows outside of the 10 ring, Thompson clinched the bronze win 146-144.
7th seed Jeff Fabry climbed the brackets too, taking a massive 139-126 win in the 1/16th, and a 137-139 win in the 1/8th before upsetting No. 2 seed Naci Yenier of Turkey 136-131 in the quarterfinals. Shooting head to head with Russia's Donskoi in the semifinals, Fabry took an early lead and held on tight for a 130-125 triumph and a spot in the gold final for the world champion title.
Paralympian Michael Lukow (Salt Lake City, Utah), ranked 5th, had a bye into the 1/16th round, which he won in a decisive 7-3 win before falling 6-2 in a 1/8 round upset by India's Singh. Coming in at the 1/8ths, Paralympian W1 archer Lia Coryell (LaCrosse, Wisconsin), ranked 9th, took a 122-120 win over Italy's Pellizzari, coming back from an initial 4-point deficit in the first end. She was stopped in the quarterfinals by top ranked archer Jessica Stretton of Great Britain 137-126.
Last U.S. woman in the compound open women's division, Tink Wallace (North Charleston, South Carolina) lost in the 1/16th round to Germany's Bui in a close 138-135 match.
Competition resumes tomorrow and features USA's recurve open men's team gold final and Jeff Fabry's gold final match later in the day. Complete results from the competition can be found at www.worldarchery.org. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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