With a 1/8 round team victory over Poland at the World Archery Championships in Torino, Italy today, the United States men's recurve team of Brady Ellison (Payzon, AZ), Joe Fanchin (Oceanside, CA) and Jacob Wukie (Oak Harbor, OH) have secured three quota spots for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The team started out strong and never looked back, shooting a 223/240 to Poland's 215 for the win. The U.S. tied Korea for the high score of the round. Other match winners in the 1/8 round were Korea, Great Britain, Mexico, France, Ukraine, China and Italy.
The United States advanced to face Mexico in the quarterfinals, which resulted in a difficult, narrow defeat for the team of Ellison, Fanchin and Wukie. The team of Juan Rene Serrano, Luis Eduardo Velez Sanchez and Pedro Vivas Alcala started out slowly, but eventually gained a one point lead in the final end, from which the U.S. could not recover. Ultimately, Korea and France had semifinal victories that will send them to the gold medal match, while Mexico and Italy will shoot for bronze.
On the women's side, the team of Miranda Leek, Khatuna Lorig and Jennifer Nichols came out strong in the beginning of their 1/8 round match versus Denmark, and took an initial lead. However, they were unable to keep up, and Denmark gained a second end lead and kept it, eventually winning the match, 215-210 versus the U.S. Eventual leaders on the women's side were Italy and India, who will shoot for gold; Korea and China will meet in the bronze medal match.
The U.S. women's recurve team will have the opportunity to qualify one individual quota spot through individual finishes this week; the top eight archers whose National Organizing Committee did not already qualify spots in the team event, will qualify one individual spot. Should the team not qualify an individual spot this week, there will be a continental qualifying tournament for securing an individual spot in 2012, as well as an opportunity to secure three spots (a full team) in Ogden in June.
In recurve mixed team competition, the team of Brady Ellison and Miranda Leek took to the field with an initial 1/8 round meeting against Russia. After the first end, Russia established a four point lead, which the U.S. narrowed but was not able to overcome, and Russia took the match, 147-145. Top teams in the recurve mixed team eliminations were Korea and Mexico, who will meet in the gold medal final; Poland and Great Britain will shoot for bronze.
The compound mixed team matches were also shot today, with Jamie Van Natta and Reo Wilde representing the U.S. In their 1/8 round meeting versus Belgium, they had a one point initial deficit, from which they recovered to tie the match. In the tiebreaker, both archers from both teams shot X10s, but Belgium was ruled to have the arrows closest to the center, giving them the win.
The competition continues today and throughout the week at the World Archery Championships, with compound team round competition this afternoon, individual eliminations beginning tomorrow, and team and individual finals later this week. Certain matches are being televised live, and can be viewed by clicking here.
Team USA is being supported by a full staff this week, including National Head Coach KiSik Lee, USA Archery Resident Athlete Administrator/Assistant Coach Guy Krueger, Coach Michael Usherenko, Coach Mel Nichols, and Team Leader Cindy Bevilacqua. USA Archery thanks the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Easton Foundations for their support of the U.S. teams at this event.
According to World Archery, more than 600 archers from close to 90 countries shoot for world titles, medals and Olympic berths at the World Archery Championships this week. For complete results from today's matches, visit http://www.archery.org. USA Archery will be tweeting results, quotes and other updates live throughout the week; follow "usaarchery" on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook to join in the excitement of the World Archery Championships!
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