MEDELLIN, Colombia - The U.S. compound men's and women's teams had big wins in team eliminations today, putting themselves in the running for both gold medals. The U.S. recurve women also had a big win, overcoming a 10th place seed to shake the brackets and rocketing themselves into the bronze final this weekend.
The U.S. has so far only qualified one out of a possible three quota slots for the 2016 Olympic Games this summer. Our archers will have one additional chance to qualify a full team at the third stage of the World Cup in Antalya, Turkey this June. To succeed, they must earn a spot on the podium in the team competition. Lauren Clamon (Chula Vista, California) and Erin Mickelberry (Bothell, Washington), two of the women competing in Medellin this week are still in the running to earn a spot on the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team.
Coupled with Anna Miscione (Ramona, California), the underdog trio put up a valiant effort in competition today, the 10th ranked team narrowly edged out 7th seed India in the 1/8th eliminations with a shoot off win. Gaining confidence, they easily outshot No. 2 seed Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals 6-2. The semifinals saw the U.S. women's scores dip a little with two lower scoring sets before coming back with their highest score of the day - a 56 - but it was too late, PR China took the win 5-1. The U.S. women's squad will face Mexico for bronze in the finals on Sunday.
The 2012 Olympic silver medalist team of Brady Ellison (Globe, Arizona), Jake Kaminski (Gainesville, Florida) and Jacob Wukie (Fremont, Ohio) took the field together in Medellin this morning. They started strong with a straight set win 6-0 over Cuba but faced a tough quarterfinal matchup with Mexico. They started off rough with a 49, and while they came back, they were only able to force a shoot-off, which Mexico won to advance.
Alex Wifler (Crete, Illinois), Steve Anderson (Salt Lake City, Utah) and Braden Gellenthien (Hudson, Massachusetts) seeded first in qualification. With a bye in their first match, they opened a point behind Colombia in the quarterfinals. They picked it up in the third end with a 59 to tie the score, and then smashed the final end to win 231-229 before taking a much cleaner win 232-227 over France in the semifinals to advance to gold.
Crystal Gauvin (Dayville, Connecticut) led Emily Bee (Howell, Michigan) and Dahlia Crook (Piedmont, Kansas) to victory in their only match of the day. Seeded third and shooting against second seed Italy, the young U.S. team opened the match with a near perfect 59, which they followed with another. Already 7 points ahead of the competition, they continued with confidence and took a solid 233-222 win to advance to the gold.
Competition resumes tomorrow with compound finals as Gauvin and Reo Wilde (Pocatello, Idaho) shoot for individual golds, and U.S. archers take on mixed team bronze and both team gold finals. Complete results from the competition so far, and a live stream of all finals matches this weekend are available here. For more, follow USA Archery on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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